Power Up, page 78
Sarah tried and grinned as both magical staffs appeared in her hands. She had to concentrate to make sure she used the right staff, otherwise Hop wouldn’t work. “This is going to take some getting used to.”
“Good news, we’ve got time.” Ryan turned his attention to Carlos. “You’re last, tough guy.”
“No thanks,” Carlos replied.
“But I have a lot of cool healing gear that will really boost your stats, or at least, I think they will. It would help if I could see what I’m working with. Perhaps you could share your stats screen?”
Carlos’ eyes narrowed. “Not going to happen.”
“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,” Ryan said, smirking.
“Not interested.”
Marcus leaned over. “He’s trying to help. What’s your problem?”
“I don’t trust him,” Carlos replied, loud enough for the whole village to hear, even those recently crushed to death by rocks.
Ryan held up his hands. “Fair enough. I respect your caution, we only just met. Don’t worry, I’ll win you over.”
“Good luck with that,” Carlos replied. He turned to the others. “We also need to pick our new abilities for reaching level 40. We should discuss our options, in private.” He stared at Ryan.
The troll stood up. “That’s ok, I have a few things to buy anyway. I’ll meet you outside.” He stalked out of the bar, dragging his club on the ground behind him.
Once he was gone Marcus said, “What are you doing?”
“Me? I’m keeping us safe, like I’m supposed to. That guy is bad news.”
“He’s trying to get out of here, same as us.”
“Is he?” said Carlos. “I don’t buy it. That was entirely too easy. One minute he’s trying to kill us and take the daggers for himself, the next he’s dishing out free necklaces like it’s Mardi Gras. He’s up to something.”
“Perhaps he is, but it’s not like you to turn down better gear. If it helps us beat the dragon, who cares why he’s helping?” asked Marcus.
“I do. The King tricked us before with a fake player, how do we know he isn’t doing it again?”
“So what if he is? We need all the help we can get. I’d invite the bartender if I thought it would help.”
The bartender suddenly remembered there was something important he needed to grab from the beer cellar.
Carlos said, “Look, I don’t disagree that he can help, I’m being cautious. Let’s sort out our abilities before our new party member gets bored and wanders off.”
The tension was still there, lurking, but Sarah did her best to cut it. “I’ll go first. I have two very different options. The first is called Supercharge. It allows me to increase the strength of my spells temporarily by 50%, with the catch being they use twice the MP. The other option is called Throttle. It leaves spell strength alone, but for the duration all spells use 25% less MP. Both last for 10 seconds and have a 5-minute cooldown.”
“Go for damage!” Carlos blurted out.
“That’s the less efficient option,” said Jas. “Mathematically speaking.”
“Both options have their uses,” said Sarah. “But we don’t have much game left to play. If we’re mainly focused on the dragon fight I think Supercharge is the way to go. The dragon rarely stays still long enough for me to focus a spell on it. If I can do 50% more damage with Beam while Sasha is stunned, that’s the better option.”
“It’s going to chew through your MP,” said Carlos. “You’ll have to be fully loaded with magic potions and find time to top up between DPS and dodging.”
Sarah nodded and locked in her choice.
Jas went next. “Interesting. I finally get a ranged attack. I can choose between Boomerang, which does nominal damage, but has a 10% chance to stun and returns automatically. It can also pick up items. Alternatively there’s Javelin, which does damage based on my STR, but has to be retrieved.”
“You thinking DPS?” asked Carlos.
“No, I was leaning towards Boomerang. A ranged stun would be handy for the dragon’s flame attack.”
“It’s only got a 1 in 10 chance of working though,” he said.
“Better than my chances of retrieving the javelin mid fight,” she countered.
“I could probably get it back to you with Magnet,” suggested Sarah.
“You’ve already got your hands full,” Carlos pointed out. “I think Jas is right. Boomerang is the better choice for right this moment. Once everyone’s done picking, we’ll reassess our battle plan for the dragon.”
Carlos turned to Nutsack. “I figured you might like a turn that isn’t last place. Do you know what your choices are?”
The rogue did his best serious expression. “Yes. Me read. Pick run on walls, or jump in air. Says passive. What mean?”
“Means no cooldown, you don’t have to activate them,” replied Carlos. He said, “Both of these sound super useful to improve your movement. Which one were you thinking.”
Nutsack said, “Jump in air. Can already run on walls.”
“That’s a pretty decent reason,” said Carlos. “I agree, double jump sounds like the better option.”
Nutsack locked in his choice. Then he said, “How work?”
“Try to jump while you’re already jumping,” said Carlos.
Nutsack did exactly that. He crashed his head into the ceiling of the tavern. The bartender peeked up from the cellar and yelled, “Oy, watch what you’re doing! You break it, you buy it.”
“Only thing he broke was his head,” replied Carlos with a chuckle. Then he said, “What about you, Marcus? What are your choices?”
“I have to pick between offensive and defensive, so it seems pretty obvious. I can either pick Pierce Armour, which allows me to ignore an opponents armour for 20 seconds, or I can pick Dig In, which increases my DEF by 25% with the condition that I can’t move for 20 seconds. Both have 5-minute cooldowns.”
“Can you cancel the Dig In ability if you need to move?” asked Sarah.
“I can, but there’s a penalty. If I move, my DEF drops by 25% for whatever time remains of the 20 second timer, plus an additional 60 seconds.”
“Wow, that’s quite the penalty. So it only really makes sense if you know you’re going to stay put the whole time. I’m thinking that could combo nicely with Human Shield during the flame attack. You should be relatively safe from other attacks while the dragon’s in the air.”
“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too,” said Marcus. “What about you, Carlos?”
The healer reviewed his options carefully. “I can either remove debuffs from someone, or I can create a Decoy.”
“A decoy? How does that work?” asked Marcus.
“From the description it creates a copy of me to either the left or the right of where I’m standing. I have no control over the copy, it simply mirrors my movements. It can still fall off stuff, trigger traps etc. It lasts 30 seconds, but only has 10HP, so it’s unlikely to actually last that long. It’s a distraction, rather than a damage sponge.”
Marcus said, “Wow, that’s a tough one. Does the debuff removal work on someone that’s ablaze?”
“I don’t think so. It lists the specific debuffs it removes, such as poison, stuns, charms and slows. Doesn’t say anything about being on fire. Jas already has it covered with Splash.”
Jas jumped in. “I’m not sure how much we’re going to run into that list of debuffs. The dragon doesn’t have any of them, at least not that we’ve encountered. I can see Decoy being more immediately useful as a distraction. If we can get Sasha to focus on the decoy, even for a second, it will delay her dealing damage to the rest of us.”
“Done!” Carlos exclaimed. He triggered the ability, and an exact copy appeared three feet to the right. The decoy was seated, even though there was no seat, which made it hover ominously in the air. Carlos waved his hand, and the decoy did the same.
Carlos stared at his mirror image with a look of horror. “Do I really look this daft in these robes?”
Marcus shook his head and said, “No!” in a less than convincing tone.
The Decoy vanished with a satisfying pop. Carlos stood up and excitedly proclaimed, “Let’s go restock our potions, and then I think we’re ready to try this again!”
***
The Secretary said, “Was this part of the plan, to have the participants join up with the corrupted troll?”
James said, “It’s a wrinkle, not a problem. It will help them beat the dragon.”
“Precisely. It lessens their accomplishment if they win. Makes the results less valid.”
“Not less valid, it simply proves something else.”
The Secretary did not looked convinced. She said, “What exactly does it prove?”
“They are resourceful. They convinced a former foe to join them, with obvious benefits to both parties. I’d think such a demonstration of advanced negotiation is something to be applauded, not punished.”
“By your own admission, the foe in question is unstable and unpredictable due to the corruption. It therefore does not demonstrate their impressive negotiation skills so much as his lack of rational thought.”
James would usually enjoy such verbal sparring, but when this woman was involved, he always felt perilously close to actual sparring.
The Secretary turned to Miles. “Can you remove the troll from the equation?”
Miles glanced at James. “I can but…”
“Do it.”
Miles tapped away on his keyboard. Then he leaned in closer, and tapped again. Nothing happened. He said, “Something’s not right. I should be able to relocate him, but when I try, nothing happens.”
“Try again,” said the Secretary, leaning in closer. Miles could feel her breath on the back of his neck, like a hungry tiger. He frantically hit the keys, but the troll remained. He said, “It’s not working. I don’t get it. I’ve done this before without issue.”
The Secretary said, “If I believe you’re lying to me, this will end poorly.”
“Why would I lie?” Miles said, shrinking back in his chair.
“So you’d prefer I think of you as incompetent, rather than deceitful?”
“I’m neither of those things!” Miles said, looking over at James for backup.
James came to his rescue. “It may be my father. He doesn’t take kindly to us interfering when the game is in progress.”
The Secretary turned on James. “That does not fill me with confidence. Get your father in line, or rest assured, I will.”
James couldn’t help himself. “He’s a virtual god, you can’t hurt him in there.”
“Then I shall hurt him out here.” The pen was suddenly back in her hand, spinning between her fingers much faster than before.
“It’s fine, probably a glitch. I’m going to investigate it right now,” Miles said.
“You do that. I need to provide an update.” She strolled away, tucking the pen into her hair. Granite made sure to keep his distance as she walked out of the lab.
James turned to Miles. “Are you out of your mind? Why would you lie to her like that?”
“I’m not lying!” said Miles. “I genuinely can’t get rid of Ryan.”
James lowered his voice, “That’s a serious problem!”
“You don’t say! I think your new friend made that painfully obvious.”
“It’s going to be obviously painful if you don’t fix it!” James hissed.
Miles frantically tapped away at his keyboard. Then he lowered his voice, “While we have a moment of privacy, I think your dad’s script might have located your mum. I’ve pinged you the location to share with him. It’s got a weird co-ordinate. I don’t think it’s part of the map. You want me to stop the script now?”
James pulled out his phone. “No, he said to leave it running. I’ll talk with him about Ryan. Hopefully it’s him messing with us, I’ll ask him to stop. I can use Mum’s location as leverage.” He started tapping out a message.
***
Jas had almost killed the demon. She jammed one of her new ice picks through its left foot spike first to keep it on the ground. It squirmed as she slashed with the other axe, triggering a freeze. The mob was low enough in health that her swords would finish it in short order. She was switching weapons when Ryan ran past and smashed the demon to death with his club. She said, “Hey! I was working on that one.”
“You snooze you lose,” Ryan said. “Besides, we’re all on the same team here. It’s not like I’m kill stealing.”
“What?” Jas asked as Ryan charged off to kill another demon.
Sarah appeared next to her. “In some games only the person that delivers the killing blow gets the EXP. One strategy is to let someone else do all the hard work, then swoop in and finish the enemy off, taking the credit. Obviously that will make you pretty unpopular with the rest of the players. It doesn’t apply in our case though, because EXP is shared equally amongst the whole party.”
“So what happens to his share if he’s already max level?” Jas said, staring at Ryan as he swatted an imp out of the air.
“It’s wasted. He can’t use it for anything.”
“So wouldn’t it be more efficient to not have him in our party?”
“No, because that would enable kill stealing. Also the friendly fire rules wouldn’t apply. We could hurt him by accident, or vice versa. It’s better for everyone if we don’t have to worry about that.”
The last of the demons died. It was far quicker with an extra damage dealer, made easier because most of the mobs hadn’t spawned back in yet. That didn’t do anything to reduce the trek itself. This was the third time they’d had to traverse this path, and the novelty had worn off.
Marcus was about to offer gentle encouragement when Ryan yelled, “Come on, you lot, you’re really slowing this whole thing down. At this rate, the dragon will die of old age before we get there.”
Carlos walked past Jas and Sarah. “I thought this guy was irritating as an enemy, but he’s even more annoying as our teammate.”
Sarah said, “He’s loud, overly competitive, and full of himself. You don’t like him because he’s you, but green.”
“That’s not true!” Carlos yelled, but the women had already left him behind.
A loud rumble let them know the volcano was erupting. Jas yelled over the sound. “It’s earlier than anticipated. Run for cover!”
They did, frantically searching for suitable places to hide. Options were limited on the side of the volcano. The closest thing to cover were a trio of rocks sticking out of the ground from previous eruptions. They provided limited protection, but only enough for two people crouched side by side. Jas and Nutsack ducked behind the first, Marcus and Sarah another.
Carlos found himself between a rock and a hard choice. Ryan had already taken his spot next to the only remaining rock. The others yelled at Carlos to get into cover, as more flaming rocks crashed into the ground around them. He tried to squeeze in next to Marcus and Sarah, but half his body was sticking out, and Sarah was at risk of being pushed out into the open. Marcus said, “There’s no room here. Go to the other rock!”
“But that troll guy…”
Marcus interrupted him. “Suck it up. We’re a team now.”
“I’d rather die!”
Marcus said, “Suit yourself, but we may not be able to get you out from under one of those rocks. We’d have to leave you here, and you wouldn’t get credit for killing the final boss.”
Carlos hissed, “You bastard!” He ran for cover as flaming rocks crashed down around him. He skidded behind the rock and found himself pressed against Ryan’s gut. Carlos said, “For the record, I’m not happy about this.”
“For the record, I don’t care how you feel,” replied the troll.
“I don’t trust you,” Carlos said.
“Please refer to my previous statement.”
A flaming rock bounced off the top of the rock they were hiding behind. Neither one of them flinched. Two more rocks crashed down next to them. Carlos risked a peek out from their spot, to see if the eruption was almost over. There was a hand on his back and he stumbled out into the open. Before he could say anything, Ryan shoulder charged him, sending him flying backwards as a massive rock smashed into the ground where he’d been standing.
The eruption finally ceased. Carlos hopped back to his feet. “Did you see that? Troll guy tried to kill me!”
Ryan laughed. “I can see why you might think that. I saw you stumble out into the open and was worried that huge rock was going to kill you. Only way to get you to safety was by knocking you out of the way. Sorry about that. I knew it wouldn’t hurt you, cause we’re teammates.”
“He’s lying!” Carlos said. “He’s trying to kill me.”
Marcus looked at the smouldering rock. “Then why would he knock you away from certain death? Besides, killing you serves no purpose. We’d simply revive you.”
Carlos turned to Nutsack. “You know he’s lying, right?”
Nutsack shrugged. “No feel strange. Think true.”
Carlos glared at Ryan. “I don’t care what the others say. I’m on to you.”
The troll held up his hands. “Sorry for trying to help. Next time, I’ll let you get crushed to death.”
Nutsack helpfully added, “Not lying!”
The rest of the walk up the mountain was done in awkward silence. Carlos insisted on staying at the back, where he could keep an eye on everyone. When they reached the foxhole everyone shared a glance. Marcus was the first to broach the subject. “So we all have to hide in there and wait for the next eruption…”
Carlos shook his head. “I’m not squeezing in there with him.”
Marcus sighed. “Let’s not go through this again. We have a job to do. Ryan’s helping us with that. We already tried beating Sasha by ourselves, remember? You can go on opposite sides of the hole if that will help.”
“I’ll take the outside,” Ryan said with a grin.
“So you can trap us all in there!” yelled Carlos. “I’m taking the outside.”
