Ultimatum: The Proving Grounds (34 page)

The last of the name plates went dark as the centaur lizard creature picked up the last surviving member, an off tank, and bashed him into the ground.

Their view was still tied to the dead mage, looking where his head was facing.

Miller’s short bearded avatar appeared in the room. He nodded as he looked around at the carnage. He stopped when he saw the mage.

He smiled.

Careful measured steps lead him to the fallen man. He knelt down and looked straight at them. “Tsk, tsk. You peeked.”

The projection on the wall flashed before reading “No signal.”

Jesse glanced from the screen to Paul. “What does that mean? Is he going to change it again?”

Jerry leaned back in his chair. “No real reason. We didn’t learn much.”

Paul shrugged. “And he won’t have time. We need to get everyone outfitted.”

Jesse raised an eyebrow. “How we going to do that without events?”

“It’s already being seen to. Hopefully they haven’t been slacking. As soon as we’re outfitted we’re going to start moving. Jerry, see if anyone has horses to spare. We need all the time we can shave off the walk.”

“On it.”

“Jesse, round everyone up. I don’t care what they’re doing. Get them to the church at Morblina.”

She saluted.

“Claire, we need to get people everything we know so they can plan accordingly. Get bullet points of what we saw broadcast to both guilds. Hell, to anyone that will listen.”

She nodded and started for her station. She glanced back at Toby once.

“Carol?” Paul glanced around. She was at her station, talking to Tim. She glanced up. “I was going to tell you to have Tim on call. So good work. Get Steff and Greg ready, too. GM tickets can wait for now.”

She nodded and poked Tim in the shoulder. “You ready?”

“As I’m going to be. I doubt Miller is going to let us help much.”

Paul shrugged. “Your job is to keep him distracted until we make it to the end. Then I have some other ideas for the three of you. But you’re right, we need to keep it on the down low or he’ll call foul. I’m going to head upstairs for a minute and let our friends know it’s about that time. They nearly had him pegged during the teleporting shell game.”

Toby blinked. “Wait, that was
their
idea?”

“Getting him to spike his network use was their idea, yes. We figured out how to get him to do it. He’s likely to spike again when he is trying to fight us all at once.”

“And that helps how? The IP ban didn’t keep him down for long.”

“We did that after the feds told us they had what they needed. Or, at least all they could get. They know he’s in the states. Likely in
this
one. They’re watching his traffic like a hawk trying to pinpoint him. When they do, the squad cars go out.”

“Heh.” Toby rubbed at the back of his neck. “So we were never supposed to win. We’re a distraction.”

“He doesn’t have much of a sense of fair play, and you can forget any hope of him honoring a deal. This is the only way things end well for us and poorly for him.”

Toby nodded. “Right. Okay. What am I doing?”

“Staying alive. We’ll have a new set of gear waiting for you. You just keep on breathing until Tim or one of the other GMs comes to get you.”

Toby frowned. “Kay.”

Not exactly heroic. Everyone else had some part to play in the Oceans Eleven scheme while he got to sit in a musty basement.

He didn’t even have a deck of cards.

But there was no one else to keep tabs on his character at the moment, and it all hinged on him surviving for a while yet.

He put his headset back on.

He was right where he had left himself.

It sounded like it was raining outside. A few drips were making it into the basement by dripping between the floorboards. That must be where the holes in the roof were.

“So…” he said to no one in particular as he glanced around. “Basement.”

28

Tim appeared in the center of the basement in a burst of white light. Where before he had simply worn a set of white robes, he now seemed to be decked out in his old gear, except that all of it was white instead of dark colors.

He glanced around for a few moments before he spotted Toby sitting in the corner. “You could have said something, man.”

“There are 72,519 stones in my walls. I have counted them many times.”

“You have been down here for like an hour, tops. Don’t get melodramatic on me.”

“Spoilsport.”

“Come on. We can’t be sure if Miller is tracking GMs.”

Toby stood and walked the few feet over. He narrowed his eyes. “How do I know you’re not him?”

“Because I haven’t killed you yet?”

“Not good enough.”

Tim rolled his eyes. “Okay, check this out.”

Toby stood and waited.

Tim seemed to mime picking something up and turning, his other hand held up near the side of his face. He swung the arm that was carrying nothing.

It wasn’t exactly pain… but pressure appeared in Toby’s leg and was gone a moment later. He could distantly hear a thump beneath him.

“The hell, man?”

It did sort of prove he was in the same room.

Tim grinned. “You looked thirsty. Now come on, stop being a jackass. Paul’s not in a good mood as it is.” He grabbed hold of Toby’s shoulder and the world was awash with white light.

The mountain was all he saw when his vision cleared. They stood before a massive metal gateway that seemed to lead directly into the rock face. He couldn’t fathom a being large enough to make such a thing, or need an entrance that tall. It must be for effect.

It had worked on him.

Tim tapped him on the shoulder and Toby turned around.

The raid group was arrayed before him. His people stood at the front, Paul and Claire only a few feet away.

Paul gave him a nod while Claire held out a bundle of black metal.

He bowed his head as he accepted the items. “This is it, huh?”

“This is it.” Paul glanced up at the gate. “We’re set up to do better than the last poor sods but we’ve only seen the first room.”

Toby set about replacing his gear with the new gear. It was the same black style of armor, though the new stuff was built for the level cap. It wasn’t mildly better… it was a lot better. “Three rooms, yeah?” Claire and the others had given him a brief overview before.

“Three boss rooms, the first being the entrance chamber. A lot of trash clearing out that room and in between the first and second.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad.”

“We planned eight but… we got a bit behind.”

Claire nodded. “Lucky us.”

Toby had a black helmet as part of the set, he held it under his arm for now. “Is any of that other stuff included in the game? Could Miller have found it?”

Paul shook his head. “No. We try to leave things out of shipping builds to prevent data mining.”

Tim nodded. “Takes all the fun out when people know everything before they ever set foot in the door.”

Toby held up his helmet. “What am I supposed to do with this thing?”

“I was thinking you’d put it on your head.”

“Makes sense I guess… aside from Miller being able to find me and all.”

Paul smiled slightly. “All part of the plan. Don’t lose that hood, though. That’s part of phase two.”

“Phase two?”

He shrugged. “Not a big issue until we get there. For now, put the helmet on. We have trash to take out.”

Toby did as he was told. Frankly, going in here… he liked the idea of the added defense. It wasn’t like Miller was going to sneak up on them now. Everyone was on their toes.

He drew his sword and saluted the raid group.

Paul smirked. “Alright. This is your show. I’m just the main tank.
You
are Tobin Ironblood.”

He frowned a bit. “Uhh… I think I’ll defer to my knowledgeable advisers.”

“Smart.” Tim nodded a few times. “I should be heading out. Places to be and all that.”

Paul nodded at him. “I wish you were coming with.”

“I have the utmost faith in you, but Tim the Great and Powerful can’t really take sides, you know?”

Toby scoffed. “You’ve been helping us since you came back.”

“Yes, but only because Miller acted out of turn. So I aided you to prevent his unfair attempt form succeeding. But right now he seems to be content to play the raid boss.” Tim looked back over his shoulder. “And you have a raid group. Seems fair.”

“Wait, you can’t just-”

Paul held up a hand. “He’s doing what he has to do. The eyes of the world are on us now, and he’s an acting GM. He can’t take sides. Not while we have a chance of winning on our own. It would look like favoritism and give Miller an excuse to abuse his own GM status.”

Toby frowned.

“I can’t act unless he screws up.” Tim winked. “But I estimate the chances of that are pretty close to a hundred percent, so I won’t be far.” He vanished in a burst of white light.

“Dang.” Toby stared at the empty space. “I was just getting used to him being around again.”

“Big picture.” Paul drew his own weapons. “We finish this up and everything goes back to normal.”

True. Except for Toby that meant going back to his apartment, his job, and spending his idle hours hiding in a game from the real world. Well, at least he wouldn’t be doing it alone anymore.

“I just want to say…” Toby glanced up at his group. “I know this week has been hard on all of you, but… it’s probably the best time I’ve had in years. I’m sure part of that is new friends, but I know some of it is the world you created. Even when it’s being twisted and subjected to someone else’s will it’s still a place
I
like to be. That should probably count for something.”

Claire gave him a smile. The others glanced about, trying to look elsewhere, though they seemed please. Even the corner of Paul’s mouth turned up a bit.

Jesse broke ranks and hugged him. “You’re fun. I’m sorry you got caught up in all this, but glad you did, too.” She lowered her voice. “Too bad Claire called dibs, though.”

“Wait… what?”

She let go and wandered back to the line.

Another group was approaching, moving in formation. They were not dressed in the uniform black that the raid group wore.

Toby lifted his sword as he pointed. “Hey, incoming.”

Paul nodded. “I know.” He turned and raised his chin.

When the group got close enough, their name plates showed most of them to be members of the Kingsmen. The rest were from the Reserve Corps.

“We’re heading into the unknown.” Paul turned back to Toby. “We may lose people… but as long as you’re still kicking, this thing isn’t over. So, that’s raid group two. They’re all capped, and they all have a position. They’ll replace any lost members as we progress.”

Toby smiled slightly. “Good that you thought that far ahead. But I hope they enjoy a relaxing afternoon out here.”

“As do I. They’re not geared as well.”

Toby grinned and shook his head.

Claire rolled her eyes. “Alright, anything else we’re waiting on?”

Paul shrugged. “Don’t think so.”

“Right.” She nodded and turned to Toby. “The rest of us have been here, I mean, unless someone in raid group two hasn’t, which is likely. Essentially, there are three rooms here, as we discussed. First is not exactly simple, but from what we saw of how Miller messed with it, it’s still a gear check.”

Paul glanced up at the doors. “Mark, the tank of group two, and I will deal with the boss. We’ll need to alternate out as his debuff stacks since it increases his damage on affected targets. That means Claire is with me and Mark’s healer is with him. The rest of you need to burn through the trash in the room without letting any of it get near the boss. If one gets close, he’ll eat it to regain health and it speeds up his enrage timer.”

Toby blinked a few times. That was some last boss kind of shit there. “Bummer.”

“Don’t let it happen, and we’re fine. We know Miller monkeyed with the damage resistance in here, so we’ve all rearranged skills as we could to land big hits. Fortunately you were already set up that way. Once the trash mobs are done you move to burn the boss down. He’ll have some standard void zones and he’s been giving sweeping strikes, so all DPS should pile in back of him as best you can, and don’t stand in the fire. Super simple stuff.”

Jesse narrowed her eyes as she glanced around and raised her voice to the whole raid. “You stand in the fire, I let you die… is what I want to say, but we can’t rez anyone this time and there’s no take two, so for the love of all that is good and shiny, don’t stand in the goddamn fire. Please. A dead DPS has a damage output of zero.”

Toby grinned. “Sounds like something you say a lot.”

She nodded with a sigh. “It’s supposed to be a gear check, not a stupid check.”

Paul patted her on the shoulder. “There, there. We’ll get through this.” He nodded for the gates. “Alright, we’re heading in. Main four groups set up a timer for ten minutes. If the fight takes longer than that… well, try to get back out the door. We won’t survive an enrage.” He pointed to the members not among the raid group. “You’re out here until we need to fill gaps. With any luck, you’ll have a boring day.” He turned for the gates, a few errant chuckles rising behind him.

It took Toby a moment, but he set up the timer on the left side of his screen.

The imposing gateway only got more imposing as they went. It was big enough to make Toby, not a tall man, feel like an ant. Nothing that lived in there should care at all that he existed… he tightened his grip on his sword. In this world, size wasn’t a measure of worth.

He would show these monsters his worth.

The raid followed as they walked. Paul was the first one to the gates. He nodded for Toby to stand beside the other one. “On three.”

They pushed both open at once. The metal hinges protested with squealing enough to wake some particularly sleepy dead.

As soon as he could see inside, there were already lizard faces staring back at Toby. They hissed and brandished weapons.

Well, so much for getting ready.

Toby started the ten minute countdown.

For the first time Toby could recall, Paul held back as everyone else charged in. They met the lizard people and moved to pull them to the right side of the room. Toby moved with the mass of players, throwing Soulbreaker to get the attention of new targets or those that veered away.