Opening Moves (The Gam3 Book 1) (42 page)

Without all its children, or whatever they were, the fight turned relatively straightforward. Kitana, with her masterful swordsmanship, was able to easily deflect and divert the Brood Mother’s main form of attack, its bladed legs. While one of the Sidesteps was occasionally hit, it always dissolved into nothingness, revealing it was an image all along. Not even Eve could figure out which one was real. Alan, meanwhile, activated hypercognition and with Eve’s help was able to anticipate all of the movements of the machine. Aurora stood in the back, sending out the occasional ice blast while the healer stood back, arms folded, looking rather bored.

In minutes they brought the creature down to 50% HP. It sent out a signal that enraged the surrounding Spiderbots. They frantically began twitching, attempting to break free of the ice. Twin fangs emerged from the Brood Mother's mouth, dripping with a dark green poisonous looking liquid; from the top of its head a small turret appeared, and began firing lasers at the group.

The fight continued, and the group took care to avoid the additional weapons as well as the Brood Mother’s legs. Still, they were able to battle with surprising ease, continuing to avoid taking any damage at all. Alan managed to fire a lucky laser shot directly down the robot’s throat as it lunged at him with its fangs, scoring a critical hit for nearly 10x the damage. Alan let the others know about the weak point, and shortly thereafter they finally destroyed the Brood Mother as the hundreds of Spiderbots began to break free of the ice.

Alan deactivated hypercognition mode, closing the messages that popped up. He quickly looted the destroyed machine, receiving a small violet crystal about the size of his pinky and a mechanical circuit board. He only glanced at both before placing them into a side pocket of his armor. Then following Aurora, they all charged back to the cavern they began at. Alan wondered how the rest of the recruits were doing,

When Aurora came up to the entrance she came to a sudden stop. Glancing over her shoulder, Alan could see why. The floor was gone. All that was left was the familiar black abyss, a doorway into nothingness.

Glancing backwards, they could see the army of Spiderbots was forming up once more into a mighty swarm, quickly catching up to them.

“I’m going to spend the last of my energy to create a narrow bridge across to the stone pathway on the other side of the cavern. I can barely make it out, but it looks to still be there.”

“It is,” Alan assured her. He could make out the stone pathway clearly.

”Alright, once we’re all across, you’ll need to destroy this bridge, Kitana,” Aurora said. She spread her hands out once more. A steady stream of energy poured out, and an icy bridge slowly appeared, connecting the exits of the now bottomless cavern.

Alan stared dazedly as Aurora worked, still amazed at the ability to literally warp reality, or at least mass, or energy, or something. He still wasn’t sure how it he’d defeat her in a duel. Perhaps he could catch her unawares, or battle her with equipment specifically designed to counteract her abilities.

The group made their way across the bridge, Alan sniping Spiderbots in the distance as soon as his weapons had the energy, carefully placing one foot in front of the other on the slippery ice. Sidestep left two images to guard the entrance of the bridge. Once they all made it across, the first of the Spiderbots were beginning to make their way onto the bridge.

With a single slice of her sword Kitana cleanly severed the bridge and it collapsed. Alan watched as the remaining Spiderbots hesitated at the doorway, then slowly began to retreat back where they had come from. He took a few potshots at the retreating forms for the XP.

“Well, that wasn’t nearly as exciting as I hoped it would be,” the healer said as they pulled back their hood. It was Void, the Mad Priest, or at least the young recruit whose form he had taken. Alan, Kitana and Sidestep looked at him alarmingly, while Aurora simply shook her head.

“What?” Void said. “I didn’t need to heal anyone that entire fight. You're all too skilled and overpowered, I think you need a handicap or something.”

“Where are the others, and what happened to the floor of the cavern?” Aurora asked evenly.

“Ah, well, that floor wasn’t really a floor, but a platform, a lift between a secure location in Black Rose territory and this here dungeon. All those scaredy-cats were probably rushed back upwards upon their return, and will be reprimanded on their return. It’ll probably be two hours or so before it comes back down. So we can wait, or,” he grinned madly, “continue exploring! Those Spiderbots were new, and I wonder what else might have changed.”

“Wait, what was the purpose of all this? I mean, if someone had just like put up a sign up sheet to go dungeon exploring, I’d have gladly joined.” Alan said, exasperated.

“Well, to teach all you recruits a lesson, of course! Never let your guard down, even when you think you’re home free. It also shows a bit of real action that generally motivates newer players to train hard.

"A few guild members like myself were hidden among the new recruits to ensure safety. It was supposed to be something of a team building exercise, but it seems like this part of the dungeon has gotten more dangerous recently. It used to be only a bunch of level 100 or so maintenance robots down that pathway. So, who’s up for a bit of exploring?”

“Um, I’m all for exploring, but I think we all need to rest for our energy to replenish,” Sidestep said. “Also, did anyone manage grab the loot?”

“I did, and I wouldn’t mind delving a bit deeper, especially with a skilled healer,” Alan said as he pulled out the two items that dropped.

“Eh, those are both junk," Void said. "You might be able to find some antique dealer and get maybe a couple diamond marks for the Spiderbot CPU, while an energy dealer might buy the crystal for a gold mark.”

“Well, I have a hunch I might need this energy crystal, so I’ll take this, if that’s alright with everyone. You guys can split the profit from the Spiderbot CPU,” Alan said, thinking of his quest to restore energy to the Abyss Labyrinth systems. The others readily agreed, and they all sat down to rest.

Half an hour later, Alan’s energy had been completely replenished, and the others decided to head out. Unfortunately, Aurora’s psionic reserves were only replenished up to 20%, but Void promised to bail them out if they got into any real trouble. Alan still had no idea what abilities Void had, and was interested in seeing a higher level player in action.

As they walked along the stone pathway they encountered nothing, not even the slightest bit of scrap metal. Void murmured to himself, unsettling Alan and the others.

“Hmm, we should have seen something by now…”

“That’s odd, I thought this pathway went in the other direction…”

“We’re approaching where the old boss used to be, I wonder if it’s been replaced…”

“I’m pretty sure I can save myself if we encounter a really powerful boss, but I’m not sure about the rest of them. Who’d I sacrifice first? Probably Sidestep. No, Alan. Nah, maybe Kitana. I’d get in trouble if I sacrificed Aurora, but the bunny gods would probably appreciate her the most. Maybe that’s what I should do…”

Everyone stopped, staring at Void. He innocently stared back.

“Do the sacrificial pawns have something to say?”

“No…” Aurora shook her head. “Let’s keep moving. If we don’t find anything in the next half hour or so we should head back.”

A few minutes later, Alan finally detected a presence in the distance. He called for a halt, zooming in on the mob. He saw a small, three by three foot cube of green slime that looked like a larger version of the grey nutrient blocks everyone ate. There was a small red ball about the size of a golf ball within the slime, darting about erratically. Eve classified it as a slime of an unknown type and level.

Alan briefed the others on the slime’s appearance. As it was small and sitting alone, they decided to approach. The only fishy thing was that it sat at the bottom of a ramp with a steep incline, which led upwards to somewhere Alan couldn’t see.

Once they were close enough for Alan to take a shot, he did so, striking the slime, tearing it apart. It simply reformed, then started to make its way towards the party with small hopping motions. It wasn’t very fast. Alan continued to fire at the slime, aiming at its red ball, which Eve hypothesized to be its nucleus. Unfortunately, due to the chaotic nature of the nucleus’s movement, Eve couldn’t predict its movements, making it difficult to hit.

Five shots later, Alan finally managed to hit it, and with a small pop the slime exploded, its contents splattering onto the stone walkway.

“Huh, that was rather easy,” Sidestep said, walking up to examine the slime more easily.

“You had to say that, didn’t you? Did you not learn your lesson earlier?” Alan asked while looking up. An avalanche of slimes, hundreds if not thousands were rapidly coming down the ramp. All were exact duplicates of the slime Alan had killed.

Alan began firing at the slimes, killing a number before they reached the ground. Immediately after one slime’s nucleus was destroyed, a nearby slime would absorb the dead slime’s body, becoming larger. Once a slime had doubled in size, the lasers Alan shot began to stop penetrating them all the way through. He started to wish he had an area of effect skill or weapon, something that could damage a large number of enemies.

Sidestep pulled out a pair of electrified short blades and created a few clones, while Kitana readied her sword. Alan still couldn’t tell if the images Sidestep left behind were actual clones or not, as various clones would deal damage independently, but never at the same time. Eve hypothesized that the real one might simply be moving about, taking the place of a different image as the battle continued.

Experimentally, Aurora froze a slime with a small burst of energy, but it simply absorbed the ice in moments, turning it into liquid, becoming slightly larger.

The first of the slimes reached them as they began making a steady retreat. Counter intuitively, the larger slimes moved faster than their smaller brethren, at about the speed of a light jog.

Kitana had no trouble slicing through the larger slimes, but a Sidestep duplicate found his blade suddenly embedded in a larger slime about the size of a microwave. The slime opened up, enveloping the blade, then surged forwards up the blade onto Sidestep’s arm, enveloping it with its slimy substance. The nucleus continued to chaotically move about within the slime’s green body, circling Sidestep's slime encompassed arm.

“Shit!” He yelled as he blinked backwards in an attempt to get the slime off him. “It’s absorbing my armor’s energy, as well as my own!”

The red ball within the slime began to turn blue and move about even more energetically, faster than before.

With a skillful pierce, Kitana managed to stab the slime’s nucleus, and it fell to the floor, inanimate. Another squelching slime absorbed the body, and its nucleus also turned blue.

Before long, they were overwhelmed by slimes attaching themselves to different members of the group, draining their energy. Even Alan’s Computational Energy was absorbed by the slimes. Out of the corner of his eye, Alan noticed a slime he was trying to destroy that was leeched onto him turned from blue to purple. The purple nucleus split in two, forming two smaller nuclei that moved even faster and had a sort of blue energy field around them.

Alan frantically began trying to scrape the squishy slime off his armor with his laser knife, thankful that the slime was touching his armor and not him.

“We can’t let them keep evolving!” Aurora called out. “Is there anything anyone can do? My ice isn’t having any effect.”

Void, who was suspiciously absent of slimes, sighed. “Looks like I need to help you guys. I’d prefer to watch the struggle a bit longer, but it seems as though if I waited too long they’d become more of a nuisance. And I still haven’t healed anyone…”

He brought out a wooden staff, inscribed with what appeared to be runes, hieroglyphic images that Eve couldn’t decipher. He held it aloft, and an electrical white blade formed an outline around it.

“I have the power!” he yelled, winking at Alan.

Before Alan could even ask how Void knew that reference, white lightning surged out of the blade, striking and destroying slime’s nuclei in rapid succession. The attack seemed to in turn absorb the slime’s energy, as the white blade grew slightly larger with each subsequent slime it zapped.