Ultimatum: The Proving Grounds (17 page)

Skeletons were climbing up over the edges.

Tim’s head swiveled back and forth. “They can climb now?”

“No.” Toby shook his head. “They’re climbing on each other. There’s a ramp of skeletons down there.”

“Oh. Well shit.”

“Yes.” Toby leveled his sword and swung, the shock wave lopping the heads off a few encroaching skeletons. More were behind them.

A yell rose from the others on the roof. They both glanced aside to find skeletons coming up on that side, too.

Tim eyed the tree again. “Think they were safer before…”

“Too late for that now.” Toby swung his sword, the shock wave dropping a few more that were quickly replaced.

Tim vanished and reappeared amongst the skeletons up top, lashing out with his daggers. They fell before him easily enough. He glanced down over the side. “Need to do something about them piling up.”

Toby swung repeatedly. He kept his distance to let the shock wave lop through more than one at a time. “I’m open to suggestions.”

Tim turned to Carol. “Hey honey, you think you can handle this?”

“Shhh!” Was her only reply. She continued flipping through the pages.

Toby’s arm was getting tired. “Think they might want their book back.”

Tim scoffed. “Nuts to that. We stole it fair and square.”

“I’m not sure they recognize our perfectly legal claim.”

“They can recognize my boot.” Tim kicked one in the head, causing it to keel backwards and knock several others off the ramp.

Huh. Must be an ability. Toby’s feet moving didn’t have any impact in the game. Then again, moving feet he couldn’t see might be problematic. Especially trying to kick with them. So long television. Hmm. Yes, probably better this way.

Tim vanished when a cry went up from the others. Toby moved in closer to Carol. “Have you tried reading faster? Seems like the thing to do.”

“Not helping.”

“I don’t think they’re keen on helping either.” He swung left and right, sending out shock waves into the skeletons pressing in on the roof.

“God damn it…” She sighed.

“What? Is it bad? Human sacrifice? Going to Fresno? What?”

She calmly stood up and placed the book on the ground. She flung fire from both hands clearing the rest of the skeletons climbing onto the roof. Once there was nothing up there with them but smoldering ash she looked down at the book. She summoned a small ball of fire into her hand and simply let it fall.

The book burst into flames readily. Almost as if it was made out of paper or something. The green smoke wafting above it briefly formed into a screaming face, but it broke apart on the wind.

The skeletons all around fell to nothing but piles of bones and rusted metal.

A pop up window greeted Toby. “The Cursed Valley: Rank 2 - Complete!”

He reached out to close the window and a metal helmet materialized and landed in front of him as the light show and gong noise that signified a level increase played around him.

Toby looked aside at Carol with narrowed eyes. “
I
was going to destroy it.”

“Yeah, well…” She shrugged. “I was
sure
destroying it would help. You just
thought
it would.”

Tim and the others stepped over to inspect the burning cinders. He glanced up at his wife. “And what horrific arcane secrets did you uncover?”

She shook her head. “I could tell you, but I prefer you to not be a gibbering madman. I do have to sleep in the same bed.”

“Excuses, excuses.”

Toby glanced aside at his party tab. The other four were still alive and well. Well, alive at least. There were some hit points missing. He nodded to the party of alternates. “Party one seems okay, check on party two, would you?”

Bill nodded. “On it.” He took off at a run with the two alternates from the other party close behind.

14

Toby collapsed onto the roof. Well that had been a thing.

There were a few peaceful moments before a voice called from below. “Hey up there.”

He leaned forward and looked down over the side. “Did you have fun with the children of the hydra’s teeth?”

Claire appeared confused.

Jesse leaned in close to her. “Jason and the Argonauts. I want to say… early ‘60s?”

Claire shook her head up at Toby. “Have you watched any movies that were made in the last twenty years?”

“Yes.” He nodded. “They’re not nearly as quotable.”

Paul stepped up beside Claire. “Why are you on the roof?”

“Because Dia de Muertos was going on down
there
.”

They were standing on piles of bones, yet they didn’t seem to mind. And
he
was the weird one. Pfft. It bloody crunched when they walked.

Paul nodded as he looked around. “Fair enough. How did you complete the event?”

“Spooky book. We swiped it and tried to decipher its many secrets.”

“I would have destroyed it.”

“Yeah, that was plan ‘B’ and the end result.”

“The other group?”

“Sent the alternates to check on them.” Toby stepped over to the edge and placed his foot on the pile of bones climbing nearly to the rooftop. They seemed stable enough. He moved his other foot out and slid down the pile.

Tim and Carol appeared beside them in a burst of smoke.

“Cheaters.”

Carol bowed her head. “Mission accomplished.”

Paul nodded. “So I hear. Good work.”

“Couldn’t have done it without Tim and Toby. We would still be up in that tree.”

“Yes… though they might consult with me next time before running off.”

Tim shrugged. “You were busy.”

Paul rolled his eyes. “True. All’s well that ends well, I suppose.”

“Hey!” A voice called from the far side of the tree. “You got healers?”

Claire started that way and raised her voice. “On my way, Bill.” She looked back at Jesse, who was once more a wolf lying in the pile of bones. She was gnawing on one. “Come on.”

The wolf let out a pathetic whimper.

“Shove it. You can heal.”

She returned to her human form and tossed the bone aside. “Fine.”

Toby scratched as the top of his head as they left. “Man. That was… actually pretty rad.”

Paul shook his head. “We all came very close to dying.”

“I know. It was great.”

The other man sighed.

Toby took the helmet out of his inventory and looked it over. It had a viking flair about it, pointy on top, cheek flaps, and more leather hanging out the bottom to cover his neck. He held it up and lowered it onto his head like a crown.

Or maybe Darth Vader.

One of those.

A blinking red light caught his eye. The mana bars beneath both Claire and Jesse’s names off to the side depleted.

“Hey, guys?” Claire’s voice called.

They started that way, with Tim and Carol hanging back a few steps. She sighed. “Ugh. Going to need a vacation after all this.”

He nodded. “Sounds good.”

“I’m thinking a cruise.”

Their voices faded away as Toby followed Paul, his eyes drawn to the bones they still trod upon. His long cloak still dragged behind him as he walked, but now it flowed over the bones. If this were real, it certainly would have snagged a few.

Claire was frowning when they arrived.

“What’s up?” Toby tried to look around her. Jesse was kneeling down with the members of group two and the alternates Toby had sent before.

Claire shook her head. “Leslie and Wayne.”

Paul paused mid step. “Can you…?”

She shook her head.

His shoulders slumped. “Damn it.”

Toby frowned. “What about them?”

“They’re gone.” Paul shook his head. “We have casualties.”

The mood on the trip back some somber. They weren’t
dead
, of course. But their accounts were locked out, and thus they were gone from the world of the game. At least for the rest of the week.

But that’s not how Paul was treating it. He lead them along, stone faced and silent.

Both groups and the alternates were moving together. Paul wasn’t willing to risk any more losses tonight.

The church and its thriving town awaited them, bright lights in the dark. The game didn’t use a twenty four hour time cycle, but it somehow seemed appropriate that it was night. And not just because it was pushing ten outside.

Theirs were not the only losses. One member of group three and another from group four had also fallen. Things were getting harder.

Dinner had been glossed over, given the late lunch and then the events of the evening.

Paul collapsed into Toby’s chair within the church. People looked at their inventories, their skills. They had points to spend and skills to augment or obtain.

But everyone was quiet.

It was Tim that broke the silence. “It was bound to happen. We knew that going in. That’s why we’re leveling alternates. That’s why we made a guild of people we could call on if worse came to worst.”

Carol nodded from beside him. “We still have the manpower. We haven’t lost this thing.”

Paul was the first one to log out. The chair was filled one moment and empty the next.

Tim scoffed. “Well, I guess we’re calling it for the night then. Everyone be back here at eight. We still have a lot to do.”

Most of those present nodded or voiced their agreement. They began to disappear one by one.

Toby sat in a different chair and rubbed at his neck as he looked at the floor.

“Hey.” Claire’s voice sounded from not far off. “Good work today.”

He scoffed. “How? We’re losing people.”

She shook her head. “Not your fault. In fact, if you and Tim hadn’t taken off and ended the event, it’s very possible we
all
would have fallen there.”

He shrugged.

She punched his shoulder. “Cheer up. We’re still alive. That means we’re winning.”

He moved a bit when she touched him. But he
knew
she yards away.

“Why… why did I just move? Why can I almost swear I felt that?”

She tilted her head. “You too, huh? It’s… kind of like spacial dissonance messing up your stomach, though someone with one doesn’t necessarily experience the other. Your brain is filling in for what it expects. It’s trying to make sense of what it’s seeing, but not feeling. So you react as if you had felt it and your brain sends the same signals. Some people swear they can smell the grass or the rain.” She shrugged. “Sorry. It’s hard to train yourself to act differently in here when things can seem so normal at times. I’ll work on it.”

He shook his head. “I don’t mind. It was just… strange. At least I understand it now.”

She smiled. “Cool. Anything else I can answer, or can we go get something to eat now?”

His stomach growled. “That sounds like a good idea.”

He was getting downright efficient at removing all the garb. Of course, that didn’t matter next to a professional. Claire was already waiting when he set the gloves and vest back on the station.

“Does yours have a zipper? Mine doesn’t have a zipper. Takes a minute.”

“Aw, don’t sell yourself short. You’ll be good at it someday.”

“Yeah, right about the time I don’t need to do it anymore.”

“Don’t be silly. You have one at home, too.”

He did. He had barely considered continuing to play after all this. But he could… assuming they didn’t have to erase his character because of Miller’s monkeying with things. Even if they did, he could make another.

If he wanted to.

Jesse waved from her station. “Where you guys headed?”

“Somewhere not here.”

“That’s my favorite place.”

He took his wallet out of his bag and stuffed it into his pocket. He’d had about enough of everyone else flipping the various bills, even if he didn’t have much of a choice in being here at the moment.

Of course, he could leave whenever he wanted. All he had to do was let Tobin Ironblood die. Then he could go home. Be done with all this nonsense.

The parking lot was still brimming with unmarked black cars. In fact, it seemed like more had shown up. The feds seemed to considered Miller a real threat. They probably wouldn’t take kindly to Toby throwing the proverbial match, no matter how little they understood it. They knew he was part of it. That things hinged on him.

“This is me.” She waved at an older sedan. She used a key to unlock it, and reached across the open the other doors.

He climbed in and pulled the door to as Jesse climbed into the back. Claire started the car and took a minute to get out of the packed parking lot. “Might have to park at the motel, yeesh.”

Jesse raised a fist in the back seat. “Ding a few of them. Fight the power.”

“Easy to say that when it’s not your car.”

“It really is.”

She rolled her eyes. “So, what sounds good?”

Toby shrugged. “I dunno.”

Jesse clapped. “Ooo. Sounds like catfish.”

Claire nodded. “It kinda does.”

Toby had to admit, they had good taste in catfish. They sat in one booth in an otherwise empty establishment. It was late, after all.

This place seemed to understand “Cajun” was a flavor, not an excuse to burn the patron’s tongue. At least, that’s how he had always understood it. Some places didn’t make a distinction.

“You’re being awfully quiet.”

He looked up to see Claire and Jesse both looking at him. Claire had spoken, but Jesse seemed to be in agreement.

He shrugged.

Claire shook her head. “Tim isn’t wrong. We can still do this, and losses were bound to happen.”

“Sort of killed the whole ‘fun’ angle.” He pushed a hushpuppy around his plate. For all this places understanding of cooking catfish, they managed to bungle bits of jalapeno into the hushpuppies. Just plain ruined.

Jesse shrugged. “It did. But that just means we need to find it again. I don’t know if we can do this all down in the dumps.”

“Right.” Claire nodded. “That’s probably what Miller intended from the start with the permadeath thing. He gave us a goal he thought was improbable, and just heaped impossible on to wear us down.”

“He probably didn’t think we’d make it to level twenty, let alone in two days. Game isn’t designed that way.”