“Maybe barging in isn’t a good idea?” Virgil says as I put a hand on the handle.
I look at the orc, glance at my willpower—just over a quarter and dropping—and take my hand away. “Talk fast.” I cross my arms over my chest.
“Six Goblinoids, possibly more,” the orc says. “Bigger than any we’ve fought yet. There’s no way we can surprise them.”
“I can stealth my way to the boss,” Jim says.
“Then you do that,” Virgil responds.
“Won’t the fighting end once he kills the boss?” Walter asks.
“We can’t be sure of that. This only seems to run like MMOs.”
“And even some of those have triggers once the boss dies,” Janice adds.
“So you two go in, bash everything in sight,” Jim says, “while I backstab the boss. Walt shoots anything that moves which isn’t you, and Janice casts her heals centered on Chuck.”
The lack of animosity in his tone surprises me, but I dismiss it for watching my still dribbling willpower, hoping they—
“Yeah, that’s about it,” Virgil says, and I shoulder the door open, summoning my bar.
I’m not surprised there’s a giant Goblinoid on my left, and my bar hits it in the neck before it can react. It doesn’t drop, but it’s stunned, so I hit it again and again as I move out of the door. Virgil’s cursing as he hurries in and blocks the one on the right.
On the fifth strike in the neck, my target finally drops.
Of the six in the room, two flank the scientist, who hurries what he’s doing instead of running away. Of the two heading in for me around the tables, one is slowed by arrows. I block and dodge the other. They’re faster than the others. If the scientist made them, he kept the best for himself.
When a punch connects, I lose a third of my health and a window pops up which I dismiss before I see more than something about my armor. I counter another strike, but those that connect don’t seem to do much.
There’s a scream of pain on the other side of the room. I think it’s the scientist, but then see Jim fly over the tables. The distraction nearly costs me my head, if the ringing of the glancing blow is anything to go by. I’m on the defensive until the debuff goes away. Then, with a roar, I attack, and the Goblinoid has to step back as I get within arm’s length.
My next dodge isn’t as successful, and the grazing blow costs me more health. That’s when I’m caught in the green glow centered on Virgil and the bar goes up.
I hit it, pushing it off balance, then strike as hard as I can at its head and it goes down.
“Yes!” Walter yells. “Finally! Level five!”
I turn to yell at him to stop talking and — the arrow that hits the other Goblinoid explodes, sending it back through a table with beakers and liquids.
I glance at the scientist, still wasting his time with whatever he’s doing, and help Virgil. Together, we take down the Goblinoid easily and we move on to the other one when another arrow explodes on it.
“Out of mana,” Walter announces. “I wish this place had mana potions.”
With the Goblinoid off balance, it only takes one strike from my bar and one from Virgil’s sword before it’s dead.
The scientist glances in our direction. “Go deal with them,” he tells the two remaining Goblinoids and I almost laugh at how nasal his voice is. He reminds me of a character from a TV show years ago; nerd kid with glasses and a voice that had to be digitally altered to be that high pitched and nasal.
The Goblinoids grab stone swords as they move away from the scientist. Virgil nods to one and we attack in tandem, only for them to do the same and force us apart. They’re even faster, and while the stone sword doesn’t have much of an edge, one hit drops my health by half.
I stay defensive, looking for an opening. When it comes, the way it does nearly gets me killed. A spot on its torso glows, accompanied by:
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I barely dodge the hit that distraction allowed, but the glowing spot remains.
My first two attempts to strike it only results in me losing a quarter of my health to a graze, but my third goes in, and sinks into a soft spot, then I rip my bar out of its side and it falls to the floor.
I turn to help Virgil, who’s dancing around the stone sword strikes. He’s barely lost a quarter of his health.
“Deal with the boss,” he shouts as I ready to strike. “I have this one.”
You do know he’s just cutting you out of easy experience, right?
Not why I’m doing this, Dad. Anyway, once I’ve dealt with the scientist, I’ll be back to help Virgil.
The… man doesn’t look up from what he’s working on as I approach and raise my bar.
Be gentle, my mother’s voice advises me. My father snorts.
Sorry mom, but I’m with dad on this one. I bring the bar down hard.
The stop is sudden and reverberates all the way to my shoulders.
“I don’t have the time for this,” he says nasally. His arm is up and my bar’s caught in the spikes along it. I pull, but it doesn’t move. His eyes are fixed on a hopdgepodge of colors floating just above the surface of the table. Patches of yellows and greens with oranges and the whole surrounded by red. “I’m almost there.”
I kick at him, but I hit the table’s leg.
“Go away,” the boss says, almost absently. He twists his arm and with a wrenching sound, my bar snaps, leaving me with a third of it as the rest clatters away.
I stare in disbelief. “You broke my bar.”
“Just go away and that’s all I’ll have to do.”
That was the only one I have left.
I throw myself at him and he moves out of the way, grabbing something off the table I hadn’t noticed before. It reminds me of what’s hovering over the conference table that Georgina showed me, only a lot smaller, no larger than a dice. I hit the table and pain exploded in my chest. I don’t lose enough health for it to be noticeable, but there’s six thin lines cut through my vest and shirt, slowly turning red from the blood.
I face the scientist, and there’s blood on his sleeve where the spike came out to slash me. I didn’t see his arm move or feel the cuts.
“Look,” he says, and I almost snicker, forgetting the pain. “I know you think that being big and strong means nothing can stop you. And I don’t blame you. That’d be true normally. Well, before. Now, all you’re seeing is someone smaller than you and you think I’m weaker, but not only am I smarter than you’ll ever be—” He moves, and an arrow falls to the ground, sliced into two as he lowers his arm. “Than any of you will ever be,” he says, raising his voice. “But I’m faster and tougher. Unlike you, I didn’t pick the first thing that looked fun or that I thought would make me more badass. I had the system winnow the choices down until I had a manageable number. Then I weighed the pros and cons of each of them, and picked the best possible option. The Arcadian Pine. I did the same for my class. I have no idea what a Soufern Observer is supposed to be, but it made me this. You can’t hit me because I know all the moves you’re going to make. Even at this low level, I’m better than all of you. So you’re going to leave me alone to finish my project.”
“You mean kill everyone living here,” Virgil growls.
The moment the scientist takes his eyes off me, I lunge. Only he’s not there, and pain erupts in my side when I crash to the floor.
“That’s just a needed side effect of reducing the civilization level of the area. I need it to go wild for this to work.”
“And what’s the project?” Walter asks, arrow drawn, but moving to the other side.
“Becoming a dungeon, of course.”
Everyone freezes, and stares at him.
I grab a table and—I’m on my back.
“I told you, I know everything you’re going to do. Now, go away and let me work.”
“No,” Virgil says and runs at the scientist. I’m up and running at him, too. There’s no way he can avoid both of us for long.
He looks bored as we keep missing him. Within moments, Virgil nearly impales me with his sword as the man just twists aside.
I slow to keep my stamina from falling too fast and notice the man glancing at the table every few seconds. When I maneuver myself between him and it, he lands a strike that shoves me away painfully.
He looks at the hodgepodge floating over the table again. I can’t tells what they mean, or how they changed, but he’s clearly done with it as with a wave of the hand in turning to pay attention to Virgil it vanishes just as I’m about to smash the table.
He looks at me, stepping around the orc’s attacks, and slowly rolls his eyes.
Oh, he thinks he can mock me?
I strike as hard as I can, but the one time I connect, it’s Virgil that staggers back. The scientist smirks at me, then his foot lands in my stomach and I’m on my back. I barely lost a tenth of my health during this fight. He isn’t trying to kill us.
He turns his back to me and heads for the back wall, the one with all the tubes and wires and too many things I can’t figure out. Now that I’m closer, I can make out that the central point everything radiates from has a humanoid indentation large enough for him to step in.
“I wonder,” he muses as I get to my feet, “if you’re just going to die when I redo the building.” I throw myself at his back, and end up pierced as spikes push through his lab coat before I’m sent to the side. That cost me a lot more health. “Or if you’re going to turn into my creatures.” He smiles as he steps into the alcove. “I hope it’s the latter. I’ve always wanted bullies to play with, instead of having them play with me.”
He puts the item he’s holding into the center point. I force myself to stand, grabbing the broken bar next to me. I’m below a sixth of health.
“Don’t bother,” he says, turning and stepping back into the alcove. “You can’t stop this anymore.”
There’s a something of neither light nor sound, then he’s gasping as tubes connect to him. I stalk in his direction, ignoring Virgil’s yells for us to get out. Walter’s carrying Jim to the exit as the walls ripple, turning into a mishmash of bland gray walls and something out of some old Frankenstein movie.
“Chuck!” Virgil yells. “It’s too late!”
I don’t fucking care. He mocked me. He played with me!
I stand before him and he looks down at me and smiles. “I’m going to have so much fun with you.”
I slam the bar into what’s left of his chest, which is now a mix of tubes and wires, where his heart would be. “I fucking hope this hurts you for the rest of your fucking life.” I grin at his surprised expression and wait for whatever his revenge looks like.