Rick hadn’t progressed much farther down the path before he ran into his next set of opponents. He stopped far short of the distance he suspected would “initiate” them, then looked to Alex.
“Yes?” she asked.
“Multiple enemies. I assumed there must be a strategy for dealing with them.”
“There’s one in real-world fighting, right?”
He nodded. “Several. None of them completely neutralize the disadvantage of needing to deal with two combatants at the same time.”
A breeze rustled his hair. The sun was lower in the sky now than it had been. Was there a time limit? Would they be forced to fight at night?
“That’s not much different than the game then, because there’s a definite downside to having to fend off two at a time. You may have made the only good choice before when you allocated both your boost points to stamina.”
He let out a startled snort at the praise. “Good to know my instincts aren’t completely wrong.”
She frowned, but said nothing.
“Is there some way to draw one away without getting the attention of the other one?” He examined the surroundings, looking for some way to gain an advantage. They’d just left the forested part of the map, and the trail had gotten much wider, but the land had also begun to gradually rise in an incline. Meadows of long, straw-colored grass stretched out in all directions, and the two enemies—one man and one woman wearing similar looking outfits—stood atop a low hill.
“Sometimes that’s possible,” Alex said. “But in this case, I can’t see any way to do that. I could take one of them—”
“What would I learn from that?” he asked.
She smiled.
That was definitely the right answer.
“The man is bigger. Should I assume the woman is faster?”
She narrowed her eyes and cocked her head. “Are you sure you’ve never played this sort of game?”
“Only the flat games, back in the day. Kinda disappointed to find so little has changed. They won’t try to attack me separately, will they?” That had always been a detail that had bugged him, both about action games and martial arts movies. As carefully choreographed action set pieces, they worked, but Rick’s experience in some particularly nasty, lop-sided fights made him hyper-critical of the unreal nature of enemies who line up in a queue to attack the lone hero.
She laughed. “I’m afraid not. You’ll have to deal with them as they come, and they don’t play by any sort of ‘gentleman’s rules.’”
Good. He didn’t, either.
Rick sighed and watched as they paced toward one another, then back away from one another in what looked like a set pattern. Why waste resources or attention on the AI pre-fight patterns? He circled to the side with the female fighter, who he’d internally labeled Sister, trying to angle himself to the outer distance of her perception when she was farthest from her partner. Now or nothing.
He charged, stopping once he’d gotten her to pursue him, then he backed away slowly enough to not deplete his stamina, but hopefully quickly enough to pull her completely away from her partner’s activation range. Good. Good, a little—
Nope. The male fighter—he’d labeled the bot Brother—took an ‘alert’ pose, then also charged in Rick’s direction.
Great. He stopped backing away and drew a deep breath.
Sister got there first. He dodged her first strike, then angled inward and to her side, coming up and under with a fast punch that only grazed her ear, which was more than he’d expected. The other thing she did was move away from the punch, which was what he’d counted on. He turned on the ball of his foot and pushed when she had backed as far away as she likely wanted to. The push knocked Sister off balance, but before she could scramble to get her leg behind her, Rick was there with a trip and another push that sent her to the ground with less grace than he’d anticipated.
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His pushes were low-stamina moves. He smiled. Brother had just entered Rick’s field of view.
Three…
Two…
One…
He ducked just as Brother reached him, then rose up against the bot’s attempted tackle, pulling the bigger fighter off his feet. Momentum did most of the rest of the job, but Rick gave it extra ‘oomph’ as he threw the man in roughly the same direction where Sister lay.
But she was no longer on the ground. He turned in time to see her punch coming, but not fast enough to dodge or block. He got far enough out of the path that only the prominent bump of her wrist dragged across his temple, but the rest of her followed, and she jammed her shoulder against his teeth. He pulled down and tried to get out of the path of her charge, springing up as soon as he was clear. She stumbled as she arrested her forward movement while Rick checked for Brother.
There. He darted toward the larger, slower fighter as he was rising to his feet. Rick connected with a solid knee to the bot’s chin, then spun to face the attack he expected from Sister.
He stood still and counted.
One…
Two…
His stamina rose enough to allow a strike. She went for a tackle and he jabbed, depleting his stamina, which slowed the end of his attack. Sister smiled as she came. She was still smiling when he cancelled his jab into the Stamina-free push.
Sister tried to raise her arms, but much to Rick’s delight, the push—though not a powerful attack—was also unblockable. The top half of Sister’s body bent awkwardly backward while her lower half was still advancing.
One…
He used the sliver of stamina he had left to drop his elbow on her face just as she hit the ground.
He didn’t have time to celebrate. Does a knockout take a bot out of a multi-opponent fight, or just delay them? He took another deep breath and scanned for Brother to avoid stumbling into his attack. He needn’t have bothered. The male fighter had barely risen to his feet. Rick calmly approached, mindful of the stamina bar as he did. It reached half just as he reached Brother, which happened at the same time as the male fighter raised his head. Rick didn’t stop advancing as he struck the fighter with a hard right straight, then tackled the wobbly combatant. It took two more hard punches to defeat Brother.
Victory!
Rick stood, and Brother’s body dissolved as he did, turning into a yellow box. He ignored it, searching instead for Sister, who still lay supine on the grass. She moaned.
Not done yet. He felt bad about striking the defenseless bot, but it was him or them. He kicked her head as hard as he could.
Victory!
Her body dissolved shortly after. An orange box replaced it, rising to eye level as he approached it.
Boost Points +1
Alex slowly clapped, but he ignored it.
He conjured the menu:
Speed: 1
Strength: 1
Stamina: 3
The points he’d put into stamina had allowed him to—barely—take on two opponents at the same time. Though it was possible he’d encounter more unbalanced fights, it was just as likely the next one would involve an enemy that required speed or strength to block or dodge.
He placed the point into Speed and examined the results.
Speed: 2
Strength: 1
Stamina: 3
Alex sidled up next to him. “No advice this time?”
He frowned. “Did I make a mistake?”
Her eyes glazed over as she appeared to examine something only she saw. “I don’t think so. Speed, huh?”
“It doesn’t matter how strong I am if I can’t land a hit or get away from an attack.”
“It helps with blocking,” she said. “But I take your point.” She coughed. “You’re gonna want to try out a few punches or dodges. Speed makes a big difference.”
He nodded and punched the air. Whoa. She ain’t kidding! He smiled as he tried a few bobs, ducks, and dodges. “Wow.”
She smiled and nodded. “Right?” She pointed at the floating yellow box that hovered above where Brother’s body had been. “I’m curious what you’ll make of that.”
Rick approached the box, which opened, releasing a yellow icon that floated at eye level.
Cosmetic Item Acquired!
Tutorial Initiated! Cosmetic items are yours for as long as you hold your account. They may be used in all matches and tournaments unless the tournament rules restrict cosmetic items.
Headband: May or may not keep the sweat out of your eyes. May or may not complete your fashion statement.
Rick sighed. “Do I have to take these? I don’t really care about how I look.”
She tilted her head. “Really? Clothes make the ma—”
“They don’t.” He laughed. “They really don’t.” He brushed the digital dust from his beginner’s training uniform. “Let’s go.”
He left the headband floating in midair and trusted Alex would follow him.