I had only made it a few feet from the garage when the windows of my car suddenly darkened and shut out any of the outside light. The car also stopped in place and refused to move despite my incessant push of the gas pedal. A line appeared on the windshield and began to draw a medieval style map, complete with faded edges and gray coloring. More lines appeared and shaped themselves into roads on the map.
When they were finished the words “Welcome to the Dragon’s Highway,” flashed on the window and then everything faded away revealing that I was actually on a highway. Just like the ones on Earth it was made of Asphalt and had a dashed yellow line going down the center. On the sides were rusted out guard rails that looked as if they would fall apart with a light breeze. The terrain off the highway was rocky and mountainous with dead trees sprinkled everywhere. It reminded me of a dystopian movie.
“Mr. Walker,” Tooty said, interrupting the soft stringed music. “You have unlocked the Perpetual Quest for this floor?”
“The what?” I asked.
Tooty paused and then audibly sighed. “Please stop interrupting me when I’m trying to explain world mechanics to you. Especially when it's important information. Now, each floor contains a Perpetual Quest, which is a quest that begins when you enter the main road of the floor and ends when you have completed the main quest, which of course you have not unlocked yet. The Perpetual Quest of the Dragon’s Highway is called ‘Escape from the Dragon’s Minions.’ The objective is as follows:
On a highway of dread you must speed,
Where dragon’s minions drive with great heed,
Dodge, swerve, and outpace,
Through their furious chase,
One mistake, and your fate they’ll concede!”
It took me a minute to decipher the limerick, but once I did it was pretty simple. I had to avoid getting captured and killed by the enemy.
“So when do the minions start chasing me?” I asked Tooty.
“Oh, they already have. They knew your exact location the moment you left Harvey’s House. Of course you can’t see them yet, because your GPS radar range is too short.
I looked at my GPS and the only thing I could see was the white circle around me representing what I had explored on this part of the map, and the blinking destination diamond, which thankfully had a line going from it to me. That was one thing I wouldn’t have to purchase later on. So I sped away in that direction.
It hadn’t been thirty seconds from when I took off that I heard a distant whistling sound that grew progressively louder. I looked in my driver’s side mirror and saw a fireball fall from the sky and hit the road right behind me. It exploded in a flash of light which momentarily blinded me and forced me into one of the guard rails. My body was flung to the side with the impact, but the rail held and pushed me back onto the road.
As I regained my sight, I was able to steady the beetle and set it straight again. I looked in my rear mirror and saw a plume of smoke covering the highway far behind me, but headed in my direction. The whistling began again as two more fireballs appeared out of the smoke and arced towards me. This time I was ready and managed to look away as the fireballs hit the road behind me again. While I wasn’t blinded, the impact of both fireballs shook the car. Whatever these dragon minions were, their aim wasn’t terrible and it was only a matter of time before they hit me. I looked down at my GPS. I couldn’t tell how far off Mimic’s Dirt Track was, and in my panicked state, I didn’t think to ask Tooty.
More whistling and more fireballs rained down as I raced down the highway. I weaved back and forth as best as I could to avoid them but they got closer to me with each hit causing small cracks to appear on the side windows. I wanted to move to the Diagnostics menu to see what heath they were at, but the controls were just too damn awkward. In my mother’s car, you could access the dashboard and the radio with buttons that were easily accesible to either one of your thumbs, but in the beetle they were centered on the steering wheel which meant I would’ve had to drive one handed, and I hadn’t been driving long enough to do that comfortably.
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The first turn of the highway came up and unlike a regular road, it angled itself upwards like a racetrack in a video game. I knew that the best way to take such turns was to angle the car in a way that you were essentially turning and going forward at the same time. My friends had mastered that technique in all the kart racing games they played, but when I tried it I usually slammed into the walls and spun out. I didn’t dare try that here, so I slowed down a bit and took the turn at the lowest possible point. The good news was that it worked and I was able to successfully navigate the turn. The bad news was that due to my concentration, and the fact that it was in one of my car’s blindspots, I did not notice the fireball.
With a deafening bang the fireball smashed into the front of the beetle destroying the front end in a wave of melted metal and shattered glass. The impact stopped the car dead and forced me to slam my face right into the steering wheel making me as though I was swallowing an intense burning sensation that vibrated through my skull and into my body. Swathes of colors burst into my vision making it almost impossible to see.
When the initial burst of pain and colors faded a bit, I could see that the shell of the front end of the car was gone revealing nothing but the engine that despite being blackened by the impact was still completely intact and was still running.
“That should have destroyed everything,” I said, spraying out blood with my words.
“Engines have a higher health rating than other parts of the vehicle,” Tooty said. “Plus the chassis took the brunt of the damage.”
I groaned at the throbbing pain in my head. “I can’t do this. I’m going to die here.”
“Perhaps you should go back to Harvey’s House.”
“And do what?” I snapped. More blood sprayed from my mouth. “I already owe him for the repairs.”
“Try negotiating. Mechanitaurs are always looking for supplies and can’t leave their garage which is why they rely on drivers to complete quests for them.”
I stared at the radio for a long moment. “How come you can give me answers like this, but you can’t do other things unless I pay for them?” I wasn’t able to give Tooty the chance to answer because the red dots of the dragon’s minions finally popped up onto my GPS. The six dots were clumped together almost making them look like one big one. The plume of smoke had closed the distance quickly. “Can you at least change the destination to Harvey’s House?”
“I cannot as that is not the proper designation of the garage.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake. Garage Zone 1 Dash E Point V3.” Even in my rattled state I remembered the name perfectly. When it came to phone numbers or random numbered information I had the gift of memory, but it usually wasn’t a very useful talent most times.
“Changing destination.” Tooty said. The line leading to the dirt track flipped and now led off to the way I had come. Now all I had to do was get through the wall of whatever was in that smoke. Luckily I had a single way to do it, even if it was stupid to try.
After switching menus I turned the beetle around and sped towards the smoke cloud. I was surprised to see tha the smoke was not coming from the vehicles. In fact it obscured them like a wall which made it impossible to identify what they were or what they looked like. This also meant that there was no identifier above their cars. Hopefully their combat level was low enough that I could get through them and survive.
Timing it as best as I could, I selected Nitro 1 and waited for the three second countdown. When it finished the car lurched forward and everything outside the car blurred. I expected an impact similar to the fireball that would destroy more of the car and my body, but there was only a bit of a shake followed by a quick grinding sound. It felt like running over a speed bump a little too aggressively, but nothing worse than that.
As soon as the Nitro wore off I hit the brakes. The car screeched and threatened to spin out as I tried my best to keep it steady. When the car finally stopped I let out a breath and looked behind me. The highway now had a fresh pair of black lines leading to my car with light trails of smoke coming off of them. Far off in the distance I could see the plume of smoke, but it didn’t seem to be moving anymore.
“Tooty,” I asked. “How far away are we from Harvey’s House?”
“Less than a minute. Surprisingly, you did not over shoot it with your Nitro 1 boost.”