Chapter 15
The walk down the access road went quickly, and it didn’t take long for everyone to get into position. Gamers they might be, but anyone who assumed that meant they didn’t take their games seriously was in for a rude awakening.
Lynn’s mind worked methodically, checking and double-checking her strategy, considering worst-case scenarios, reviewing contingency plans. Every time a worry popped up or her insecurity tried to dig in its evil tentacles and derail her thought process, she buried herself deeper in the mission. Larry or Lynn, both or neither, it didn’t matter who she was.
She had a job to do and nothing else mattered.
“Okay, Hugo,” she subvocalized on her team channel. “Time to take us live.”
As much as it pained her to do so, they’d told Mrs. Pearson all about Operation Boss Bash, and the PR manager had helped them come up with a workable plan for capitalizing on its potential without sacrificing operational security. GIC had been hyping a big announcement from Skadi’s Wolves for several weeks, implying it would happen at GIC headquarters with all sorts of fanfare and corporate shine. The misdirection helped discourage any enterprising paparazzi from shadowing the team members—though Lynn and the guys had still sneaked out of their respective houses before light that morning and met at a random restaurant for breakfast and to change into their gear.
Now, with people worldwide glued to their streams waiting for the “big announcement,” Lynn and the guys switched on their live views. Helen had already set up their stream to play various prerecorded clips to keep people occupied until the live feed started, and Lynn knew their standard five-minute delay would be in effect as well.
Time to rock and roll.
“RavenStriker to Skadi’s Horde, heads up everybody,” she said, noting all the gold and green dots on her overhead were lined up in the proper formation. “This is it. Once we go into combat mode, we’re not coming out until we’ve utterly obliterated this boss, or we’re dead. You all are the best of the best, the top-scoring, most professional teams on the North American continent. I expect to see great things from you, and I’m proud to be the one leading you. Remember to listen to your captains, support your squad, and of course, have a freaking shit ton of fun.”
A few hoots of approval sounded around her, and one side of Lynn’s mouth twitched upward. She was being more verbose than she liked to be during an op—in combat you used the fewest words possible, or your enemy would frag you while you were still jabbering to your men. But she had a live audience to please and a small army of gamers to inspire, so she tried to keep that in mind while her Larry brain just growled at her to shut up, hurry up, and start killing things.
“Today, you are Skadi’s Horde,” she said, pitching her voice to battlefield volume. “Today, we fight for the Horde!”
“For the Horde!” many voices yelled, drowning out Mack’s muttered protestations about “the Alliance” and “far superior.”
“Blood for the Blood God!”
“Te morituri salute!”
“IT’S BEER AND CIRCUSES! BEER!”
Other war cries rang out up and down the line spread out across the road and into the woods.
“On my mark!” Lynn yelled over the clamor. “Enter combat mode and begin a measured advance in three, two, one, go!”
Hugo flipped the switch, and her overhead map turned blood red.
“Whoa!”
“Shit!”
“There’s too many of them!”
Yells of alarm sounded over the channel and through the air, and Lynn gritted her teeth. Her team was already attacking, Edgar and Ronnie in the lead with Dan and Mack on either flank and her in the middle, dodging back and forth in support and killing anything and everything within reach.
“Everybody but team captains, get off the open channel!” she yelled. “Captains, clear your immediate area, then advance. These are low-level mobs. Sweep the floor with ’em.”
It took them a few minutes, but soon the swarms of imps, grinder worms, Grumblins, demons, and other low-level TDMs had been pulverized and nothing else was close enough to detect them, thanks to the area cloaking of Skadi’s Bastion that Lynn had equipped. She’d been ecstatic when she’d learned from Hugo that Bastion’s defense and stealth bonuses applied to any “team” she formed, including a hunting group, as long as she was the one who created it. If they were her people, then Bastion would protect them. In her other hand, she held Abomination, ready to rain sweet destruction down on the TDMs.
It was not her preferred role. But such was the sacrifice of leadership. Besides, once they hit the lines of Alpha Class monsters around the boss, they would need all hands on deck and she would see enough action to keep even the most bloodthirsty gamer happy.
Lynn switched to the squad leaders’ channel and had everyone check in. Then, they advanced.
Edgar and Ronnie set the pace at a measured walk, killing as they went. Lynn kept a careful eye on the formation and relayed to her spearpoint when to slow or speed up. They couldn’t advance too quickly or they’d leave behind their wings spread out in the woods. Neither could they form a simple patrol line and double-time it down the access road to their objective. That would leave too many enemies behind them and waste opportunities to pump up their group experience bonus. This slow sweep leading up to the rings guarding the boss was less exciting, but entirely necessary.
It also gave the squads a chance to iron out any wrinkles in their movements.
“Green Wing Leader, tell your squad to quit stopping for loot. This isn’t a daisy-picking party. Grab and go!”
“Sorry, RavenStriker. On it.”
“Gold Spear Leader, your squad’s pulling ahead. Put a damper on it until we hit the rings. If your boys and girls have extra energy, start grabbing loot and transfer the excess to the group.”
“Roger that,” DeathShot said, amusement in his tone. “We’ll try to keep busy while you lot catch up.”
“Don’t worry,” Lynn told him, having Hugo switch her to a private channel with Yoda. “I’ll send the Nundu your way when they show up. That’ll keep you busy.”
Nundu, the upgrade from Yaguar, was as fast as a striking Creeper and as relentless as the night-loving Varg. The four-legged, low-slung creatures looked like scaled panthers with spikes down their spine and a whiplike tail they used for balance and to strike you as they sped past. They were not fun to fight and played hell on Lynn’s kill-to-damage ratio.
“Sonia will take care of them,” DeathShot promised. “She’s got a sniper augment that would make you weep with envy.”
“Oh, I know,” Lynn said. “I saw it when I was making the team assignments. When I told my sniper, DanTheMan48, his head almost exploded. I’m not convinced she can make the shot, though. Those things move too fast.”
“Bet you one of those famous taco pizzas I keep hearing so much about that she can take one down with her first shot.”
Lynn grinned. “You’re on.”
They made good progress for the first quarter mile. The Delta, Charlie, and even Bravo class TDMs that started crowding in were easily dealt with by such experienced teams. Many of them had augments with area bonuses, so each team’s damage and armor capabilities increased exponentially for being in a squad formation. Though the TDM were thick on the ground, they fell like wheat to the scythe of Skadi’s Horde.
After some initial disorganization, the formation’s lines straightened up and in the open air Lynn could hear good-natured banter going on between teams on their individual channels. After she’d chewed out the first few people who mistakenly broadcast on the group channel, nobody else had made that mistake.
By the time they reached the last quarter mile, things started to get intense. Lynn could see where the access road opened out into the mesh node clearing up ahead. But between them and the node were ranks upon ranks of monsters. Not just four or five like they’d faced before, but over a dozen. Lynn felt a chill run down her spine.
There were a lot of monsters in front of her. But that didn’t mean the game was out to get her or that some antagonistic force beyond the game’s algorithm was messing with the TDM levels.
Besides, in the end it didn’t matter. A dozen lines or one, Skadi’s Horde would crush them all.
“Heads up, Skadi’s Horde. Shit’s about to get real. Tighten up, pay attention, and bring your A game. We’ve got to pick up speed, hit them hard, and keep moving. Assault through the enemy, don’t stop. Spearpoint teams, open a gap, spearhead, widen it, and wings, blast it to smithereens. I’ll signal the wing squad leaders when they should fold in. Now, let’s utterly obliterate these bastards and send them crying like babies to their digital god!”
There were some hoots of approval, while Lynn rotated through her other channels.
“RavenStriker to squad leaders, double-time and hit these bogies hard. Don’t forget, head on a swivel and keep your formation tight.
“RavenStriker to team captains, keep an eye on your team’s levels and keep the supplies flowing. We’re only as strong as our weakest link, so don’t let anyone run out of juice.”
Acknowledgments flowed over the channel as Lynn’s focus turned to the TDMs in front of her team.
“Skadi’s Wolves, let’s wipe the floor with these bastards. You set the pace, so I want maximum output. Mack will push you ichor if you need it. Listen to Hugo and re-up your levels as needed. If anything big comes, I’ve got your back. Go!”
Edgar and Ronnie broke into a trot and Edgar’s eerie choo-hoo-HOO war cry rang out through the woods. Lynn could just imagine the grin on his face as he prepared to hit the first line of TDMs like a herd of rampaging elephants. The pounding of footsteps on gravel and the crash of underbrush changed to the swish of grass as their hundred-plus-man formation swept into the clearing around the mesh node.
The first line of Orcull, Penagal, and Spithra vanished into explosions of sparks before the hunters got within a dozen yards. The next line was swept away in similarly effortless fashion. By the third, Namahags and Managal were showing up, soaking up fire and lasting a few seconds longer than their weaker counterparts. By the fourth and fifth lines, Rakshar were dominating the lines while lone Manticar and Yaguar attacked from the sides. Lynn remembered last September—it seemed so long ago, almost another lifetime—when she’d been terrified of Manticar. Now their lionlike roar and the subtle vibrations of their approach just made her smile with predatory anticipation. Yaguar were more of a problem simply because they were so small and fast, but their team had spent weeks perfecting just the right tactics and response for each of the different TDMs.
They knew what to do.
Edgar blasted away, switching ammo smoothly from armor piercing to poison to incendiary as needed. Ronnie was in the thick of it all, his Splinter Sword flashing, finding every weak point between armor plates and spikes as he sliced the monsters to bits. Mack was methodical but effective, his movements tight and economical as he destroyed TDMs while scooping up supplies to transfer to his team. Dan cackled with bloodthirsty glee and shouted smackdowns at the TDMs as he put bright blue bolts through their brains and “showed them who was boss.”
Over the roaring cacophony of TDM cries and the very real shouts of the Hunters around her locked in augmented-reality battles, Lynn heard the occasional wailing shriek of Tengu and the deeper, but much more terrifying screech of Kongamatos. Those monstrosities were the Alpha Class upgrade of Tengu: giant, armored pterodactyl-like beasts with mouthfuls of teeth that could rip away half your health in a single attack if you didn’t dodge fast enough.
Wisely, Lynn had put the teams with the best snipers in their formation’s wings, and they’d already been briefed on their job of keeping the skies clear. If Lynn had looked up, she would have seen the air filled with blue energy bolts from Spitfire sniper rifles and the exploding sparks of Rocs, Tengu, and Kongamatos.
Ronnie and Edgar’s momentum didn’t slow until they were halfway through, around the sixth line of TDMs. That’s when they were ambushed on both sides by a group of Strikers patrolling between the lines. Lynn hated them even worse than Creepers. Because they roamed instead of lying in wait, their heavy camouflage and soft, sibilant hisses made them difficult to notice in a press of bigger, louder monsters. They were much sneakier—and harder to kill—than the ghosts, Ghasts, and Phasma of Delta and Charlie Classes.
By the time she, Mack, and Dan had helped destroy the Strikers, the bigger monsters were crowding in and their momentum was largely lost.
“Horde, tighten up!” Lynn bellowed, seeing on her overhead that the clusters of green and gold dots had started to spread out, caught in the heat of battle as they pursued the TDMs.
“Squad leaders, spearpoint is stuck in. Don’t let your teams chase every monster, let them come to us. Switch to ranged if needed, and use the breather room to distribute supplies.
“Green Spear, Gold Spear, we’re bogging down. Focus your fire forward and push!”
Lynn accompanied her words with action, renewing her flurry of fire from Abomination, taking out Rakshar one at a time with clean headshots right through their ugly, fanged faces.
Controlled chaos raged around them as their spearhead slowly pushed forward through the sixth, seventh, and eighth lines. They got dangerously close to losing Hunters as their “supply officers” raced to keep up with shrinking health levels for those in the thickest fights. It would have been worse but for the defense bonus of Skadi’s Bastion. Lynn kept moving, trying to draw the fire of any ranged TDMs and using Bastion to protect her and those nearby as the ranged monsters were taken out by snipers.
“Holy crap, what is that!”
Someone’s horrified yell rang out over the group channel, and Lynn’s eyes snapped up, searching for the source of the alarm. When she saw it, her lips thinned.
Lovely.
Half a dozen Spithragani, a good six feet taller than the lesser Spithra, stepped over the lines of TDMs, headed toward the Hunters. Unlike some Hunters, Lynn and her team did their homework and had already studied the Spithragani and fought against them in the TD Hunter app’s simulations, so they weren’t daunted by the monstrous spider-crab-like beasts with armored shells and pincer mouths. They were terrifying to see coming toward you on their spiked stilt legs. They were also devilishly hard to kill in melee combat as their armored bodies were a good seven feet in the air.
“DanTheMan, Sonia, I want those Spithragani gone.”
“On it,” Sonia said as Dan echoed her. Blue bolts started hitting the Spithragani, mostly splashing over their tough armor but some finding their mark in the monster’s vulnerable mouth and eyes.
Skadi’s Wolves led the formation through the ninth rank of TDMs, fighting tooth and nail for every foot of ground. The wings had gotten bogged down and were starting to come apart, so Lynn gave the command for them to fold inward and tighten up, creating one large spearhead. The teams were close enough together that the ones in the rear could support the ones further up with ranged fire while the tip of the spear raged in melee battle with the biggest and toughest monsters.
The snipers kept the Spithragani from stomping all over the teams, but with their attention tied up it was up to the melee and tactical fighters to keep the mobs of other TDMs from washing like a wave over their lonely spearhead. Lynn found herself charging out again and again, using Bastion to block, bash, and push back particularly aggressive monsters to give her fighters breathing space.
If only we had a shield wall, Lynn lamented to herself as she charged a Rakshar and blasted away at a Spithragani close enough to step on them. There were a handful of other Hunters in their group with shields, but not nearly enough. She body-checked the Rakshar away from Ronnie, who was busy slicing up a clutch of Strikers trying to ambush them from the side. The Rakshar came back for more, so Lynn ducked under its lumbering swipe and stepped into its reach to shoot rapidly up through a vulnerable spot under its chin. It exploded just in time for her to raise Bastion and block a shower of poison spray from the Spithragani’s pincered mouth. Seconds later the spider-crab monster exploded from blue bolts to the brain and her attention flicked to her map, checking on her Hunter group’s formation.
It was holding.
We can do this.
Lynn grinned and spun, bashing away the clawed strike of another Rakshar before jamming Abomination up under its chin and firing away. Through the resultant sparks she spotted DeathShot, ducking, dodging, and dancing between targets as his twin pistols spat fire in tandem faster than Lynn could fathom. How in the world he was able to aim at all—much less accurately—in two different directions at the same time was beyond her. His pistols were a named set and Lynn made a mental note to ask him some time how he’d earned them.
Regardless, he was a machine, and Lynn suspected he kept his supply guy busy with a mind-boggling level of power consumption.
Skadi’s Wolves broke through the tenth line, Team Light Brigade on their right and The Lone Gunmen on their left. Lynn was breathing hard, but deeply. She felt the fatigue of battle in her aching muscles and burning lungs, but knew she had plenty of fight left in her. The thick of a fight was all about mind over matter, and her mind could push her body much further than it wanted to go.
Spin. Strike. Dodge. Roll. Shoot. Again and again and again.
She fought almost on autopilot, the movements imprinted in her muscles through hundreds of hours of hunting and simulation practice, while her eyes slid smoothly from overhead to display to the battle before her. There was no panic, no tense worry about what was happening or what would happen. Just smooth input of sights, sounds, and data, and cold, calculating output of decisions.
A growling scream heralded the arrival of the Nundu Lynn had predicted. It shot past, leaping over their heads in a streak of gray, and Mack’s body flashed red with damage.
“You’re up, Sonia!” Lynn yelled, trying to keep the thing in view while still fighting two other TDMs simultaneously. If she could keep herself between it and her team, Bastion could stop the damage from its whiplike spiked tail and razor-sharp claws that moved too fast to dodge.
Out of the corner of her eye, Lynn saw Sonia back up from the line of battle as the Hunter switched weapons, going from the higher-powered and longer-ranged Spitfire to something more suited to close quarters. Sonia gave herself space as her rifle muzzle tracked the Nundu’s movements. Lynn lost track of what the woman was doing when she had to block a Striker that had slithered at her from between the feet of the next line of TDMs. But she was close enough to hear the shot Sonia took and see the small shower of sparks in the air close above them.
“Guess—I owe you—a taco pizza,” Lynn panted after shifting channels.
“Darn straight—you do,” DeathShot replied, sounding just as out of breath.
“I think you mean you owe me a taco pizza,” came Sonia’s amused voice. She did not sound out of breath. “DeathShot can have a taco pizza when he shoots his own Nundu.”
“Don’t be greedy, Sonia. You can’t possibly eat an entire pizza by yourself.”
“Sounds like a challenge,” Lynn said, grinning and ducking under a Rakshar’s swipe.
Their banter fell silent as more and more monsters crowded in and Lynn had no more thought for anything but moving and killing.
“Miss Lynn, be aware, you are within five percent of advancing to Level 37,” Hugo informed her.
Crap.
Leveling was good, but not in the middle of a pitched battle. It couldn’t be helped, though, and she knew from reviewing the stats of all the teams she’d invited that others would be facing imminent leveling as well. It would make them stronger, but it would also invite the attention of the toughest monsters out there.
After what felt like an eternity, though her display told her it had only been a few minutes, Lynn forced herself to re-evaluate their position. Their forward momentum was gone. They were holding their ground, but for every TDM they killed, two more filled its place.
It was impossible to advance. There were simply too many enemies.
She made a decision she’d hoped to avoid, but there was no help for it.
“Green Wing, Gold Wing, execute Contingency Scenario B. Squad leaders, direct rearmost two teams to focus out and behind, forward three, fire out and forward. Let’s get this boss. Move!”
With surprising swiftness, the squads shifted, the wings sliding inside the spear to make a double line powerful enough to break through the mobs of TDMs. The sounds of pistol and rifle bolts, and the shouts and calls of group members increased. Lynn didn’t take her eyes off her enemies before her, just used her overhead map to ensure the formation shift was finished before she called for another advance.
A firestorm of bolts hit the lines of TDMs in a tsunami of damage, and several ranks of monsters simply vanished in a whirlwind of sparks.
“Advance! Go! Go! Go!” Lynn shouted, egging her Hunters on. She could see the massive cloud of glittering mist between the spiked legs of Spithragani and lumbering shapes of Rakshar.
And that was when she leveled.
As if summoned by the tantalizing scent of her newly promoted self, a line of Jotnar appeared between the last line of TDMs and the boss’s sparkling mist.
Lynn swore the most colorful, dirty, Larry swear she could think of, and heard a flurry of snorts and guffaws over the group channel that she had forgotten to exit.
Oops.
Hopefully nobody in the group had heard that particular Larry expletive before and wouldn’t wonder where she’d gotten it from. She already knew Helen would edit it out of the livestream, so at least she didn’t have to worry about that.
“Jotnar incoming,” she told the group in a more normal voice. If she had leveled, that meant everybody else had or would be leveling soon, since her invites had only gone out to teams as high level as Skadi’s Wolves. Jotnar were Orcull on steroids, with legs and arms like tree trunks and hide just as thick. Their crushing attacks did massive damage, and their only weakness was how slowly they moved. They would take forever to kill, giving all the other TDMs around the boss time to crowd in, trapping Skadi’s Horde and diverting their damage and attention away from the boss that was their primary objective.
So, as usual, Lynn acted.
It wasn’t that she acted without thought, more that she didn’t let thought hold her back from acting. Her plan was untried, but if it worked, it would be the difference between success and failure.
“DeathShot,” she said on the squad leader channel. “You have command of Skadi’s Horde. I have to go do something only I can do. Squad leaders, push forward and prepare to form a firing line, Spear squads firing on the boss, Wings covering our rear. Get your TD Hunter app analyzing the boss. We need it identified, stat.”
To her relief, none of the squad leaders questioned her decision. They simply acknowledged and got to work.
Well, all except one.
“RavenStriker, what are you up to?”
“Focus on your command, DeathShot. I know what I’m doing.”
“Do you? I heard the rumors. Last time you ‘knew what you were doing’ you got a concussion.”
Lynn’s mouth thinned and she didn’t reply while she fended off an attack to her head and blasted the offending TDM with Abomination.
“Follow the plan, DeathShot. I’ll be back,” she finally said, voice tight. She turned her head enough to suck a quick gulp of water from her built-in hydration pack on her compact backpack. If she collapsed this time, she wanted to be darn sure it wasn’t from dehydration.
But she didn’t intend to collapse, nor jump inside of a boss. Her plan was much less suicidal, but still risky enough that she could let anyone else do it.
Not after she’d seen what this boss had done to Mack and failed to do to her.
With a last storm of fire, the tip of their spear broke through the final line before the towering Jotnar, and Lynn sprinted forward, passing between Edgar and Ronnie as she headed straight toward the nearest Jotnar. Both her friends shouted in surprise as she passed, and she could hear Edgar calling for her to come back.
She would have, but she was the one with Skadi’s Bastion.
Shield held at chest level, tight to her right shoulder, Lynn charged the Jotnar in front of her and rammed it right in the stomach.
Instead of going through it like she should have, she met a strange, marshmallow-like resistance. Contact with it sent uncomfortable tingles up through her hands and arms. But then the resistance vanished as the Jotnar bounced backward. It was only a few feet, but that was further than it should have moved at all, based on everything Lynn had seen in TD Hunter so far.
Lynn didn’t waste energy wondering why, she simply drew back and charged again, knocking the Jotnar back further toward the ominously twinkling boss.
By that time her Horde had caught up and started pelting the line of Jotnar with fire, distracting them from all stomping on Lynn at once. Still, she had to dodge huge, trunk-like feet and duck under ponderous swings as she kept charging the monsters, pushing them further and further back toward the boss.
She was gulping in lungfuls of cool spring air by the time she’d gotten the first one at the very edge of the sparkling mist. It kept trying to step forward, but she drove it back, half herding, half pushing it into the mist. She had no idea what would happen once it was inside. But even if nothing happened, she’d used her unique item and high tolerance for damage to distract deadly enemies that would have rampaged through their firing line before the Hunters had a chance to kill them.
With one last ramming charge, Lynn bounced the Jotnar back into the mist. She jerked away, retreating as a tendril of mist seemed to reach out for her. By the time she’d jumped out of the way, the Jotnar was completely surrounded by the sparkling stuff.
The TDM stopped moving. Lynn couldn’t be sure, but she thought its image in her AR sight flickered. Or perhaps that was just an effect of the mist.
Triumph surged through her, though she couldn’t take time to enjoy it. The other Jotnar nearby attacked, and she got to work herding another into the mist as finally the one closest to the firing line of Hunters exploded into sparks.
By the time the rest of the Jotnar were neutralized, she’d taken more damage than she would ever have voluntarily exposed herself to. But there were four Jotnar immobilized inside the boss while the three others had been wiped out by the Hunters.
As she dashed back to the line and rejoined her team, she spoke on the squad leader channel: “RavenStriker to DeathShot, I have command. Green and Gold Spear, focus all fire on that boss. Let’s kill it and boogie.”
“You are the craziest gamer I’ve ever met, Raven,” DeathShot said over their private channel. “If we survive this, I should be the one buying you pizza.”
“Make it a rare steak and I’ll accept,” Lynn said, too tired to laugh, though her lips twitched in amusement.
A quick survey of her overhead map and the data on her display told Lynn her crazy stunt might not be enough. She shook her head in disbelief that she’d thought they could wipe out all the TDMs around this boss. They’d been fighting like mad for over thirty minutes. They were exhausted and would soon be facing limited supplies, yet they’d barely destroyed a third of the TDMs surrounding the boss. They had already lost a few members who hadn’t been able to keep up with the onslaught of damage, and they would likely lose more before they were done. Worse, they’d barely begun to chip away at the unidentified boss.
Speaking of.
“Hugo, you’ve got a hundred sensors analyzing this thing. Give me something!”
“Patience, Miss Lynn. It’s not simply a matter of the volume of data collected. I need time to analyze the TDM’s attacks and responses to its environment.”
Lynn kept Abomination spewing fire at the boss as she eyed the edge of the sparkling mist. It was definitely closer, but by how much? The Jotnar were no longer visible within it, either because of a game glitch or simple visibility issues.
“Hurry up. That thing is coming. For us.”
“I assure you, your entire group will be informed immediately as soon as I finish my analysis.”
“Skadi’s Horde, warning, boss is mobile. I repeat, boss is mobile. Keep an eye on it, prepare to retreat as needed. Green and Gold Wings, you have to make a path. Try not to have too much fun while you’re doing it.”
Lynn kept her tone light and amused, but the reality of the situation was much more grim. If the TDMs behind them grew too thick, they wouldn’t be able to retreat from the slowly advancing boss. They might be forced to retreat through the TDMs, taking on massive damage. Not all of them would make it out, and they definitely wouldn’t have enough members left to destroy the boss.
The alternative—trying to fight the boss from the inside like she’d done at the qualifiers—was out of the question. Somehow, deep in her bones, she knew it wasn’t safe. Why she couldn’t say, and that freaked her out even more. But she wasn’t about to ignore her instincts with the safety of her fellow Hunters on the line.
Thousands of hours of gaming had conditioned and strengthened Lynn’s trigger finger. Even so, it was threatening to cramp from the stream of no-holds-barred fire they were pouring into the slowly advancing boss. Her omnipolymer pistol grip was hot and sweaty from her exertions and she imagined she could smell the ozone that would be filling the air from their whirlwind of plasma bolts if they’d been fighting for real.
“Entity analysis partially complete.” Hugo’s voice broke through her concentration, and she felt a surge of adrenaline as the mist suddenly flickered to horrifying life.
This time it wasn’t just her swearing over the group channel.
“Holy cow that thing is ugly,” Dan shouted.
Lynn couldn’t agree more. The monstrosity looked like something from a Cthulian horror novel, unspeakable and all. It wasn’t as towering as Mishipeshu had been, but it was far more vast, like a giant, oozing blob of flesh. What made it truly horrible, though, were the hundreds of arms, legs, and heads sticking out of it—not human parts, but parts from every TDM the Hunters had ever fought. It was as if the designers had taken dozens of each monster in the game and smashed and melted them all together into a giant mass. The thing was inching toward them, dragged along by hundreds of mismatched limbs grabbing, lifting, and pushing its disgusting bulk.
“Unknown entity has been designated Gyges, Alpha Class boss,” Hugo said. “It has a single attack, Devour, which is fatal. It is only effective within close proximity, however, and it has no ranged attacks. Defenses include blubber-like hide that affords it an armor bonus. Detection, Level 30. It has no stealth, and its only special ability currently detected is Crawl, giving it limited mobility. I will spare you the lengthy list of discovery credits. A full analysis and additional bonuses will follow once the boss is defeated.”
The end of Hugo’s spiel went in one ear and out the other as Lynn focused on the tactical information. There wasn’t much, except the chilling confirmation that none of them wanted to get anywhere near it.
Devour. Was that what it had done to the Jotnar she’d pushed into it? Had it eaten them? Had that tendril of mist reaching out for her been the ghostly zombie arm of some TDM this boss had previously devoured and assimilated into its bulk?
Regardless, Lynn tucked away the mental note of her successful, if unorthodox, tactic with dispensing of the Jotnar.
“RavenStriker to Green and Gold Wing. How’s our back trail? This boss is slower than a launch-day patch, but once it gets here, we’re screwed.”
“It’s pretty dicey back here,” FoxyMulder said, and Lynn made a quick subvocalized request to Hugo to turn up her left earbud volume so she could still hear the squad leader over the uproar of TDM noises, bolt blasts, and shouts of Hunters around her. “I’m thinking once we kill the boss, we skedaddle and leave these fellas in the dust. Otherwise, we’re liable to end up cold and dead.”
“Noted,” Lynn said, still out of breath. Her trigger finger was killing her.
The next minute was excruciating, from the tension of a slowly approaching monstrosity that made her sick to look at, to her burning lungs and cramping finger, to the rising fear that their firepower wouldn’t be enough—and she was going to get them all killed.
With less than a dozen yards left between their double line and the boss, Lynn shouted, “Green Spear, Gold Spear, back up! Boss is too close.”
“Would love to, but then we’d get our heads ripped off by Spithragani,” IAmAgentFranks grunted.
Lynn looked for a weak point in the wave of crimson dots surrounding their position, but there wasn’t one. Nowhere to break through, nowhere to retreat. Certain death in front of them.
With nothing else to do, Lynn gave an order she’d really been hoping not to give.
“Skadi’s Horde, we’re breaking regular formation. All snipers, on the boss. Use everything you got. Assault and tanks, get in close and dirty with your highest-damage weapons. Be careful. One strike from this boss and you’re dead. Everyone else, fire to the rear and keep us alive. We’ve got one shot at this. Move!”
Hunters dashed forward, monsters roared, and chaos reigned. Putting the hardest-hitting two-thirds of their force at the front was her last desperate attempt to kill the boss—if they weren’t destroyed from behind first. But better to die trying than to have never tried at all. Though if a hundred Hunters weren’t enough to kill an Alpha Class boss, she didn’t know what was.
First one, then another Hunter’s blue dot winked out, and Lynn swore. They’d run out of Oneg and weren’t killing enough TDMs to keep up with demand. She just hoped the Hunters that died followed her orders and got the heck off the battlefield and away from the boss. In her prebattle brief she’d instructed Hunters to re-enter combat mode far enough away to avoid the high-class TDMs, but close enough to still get the group experience and item bonuses. That way they wouldn’t miss out on the rewards despite the cold chill of death penalties that kept them from rejoining the main battle.
More Hunters died, and Gyges inched ever closer. If it came much further, the assault fighters, Ronnie included, wouldn’t have room to maneuver and still avoid all those grotesque arms reaching and flailing.
Just then a flash washed over them, so bright Lynn reflexively lifted an arm to shield her eyes. In the same moment the handles of her weapons blazed with heat and her hands spasmed open, dropping them to the ground. She dove for them, still blinking and trying to clear the spots from her vision, only to realize they were surrounded by an eerie stillness.
“Hugo, what the heck?” Lynn subvocalized, frozen in a kneeling position on the grass as confused shouts rose around her.
“Congratulations, Miss Lynn, you have destroyed an Alpha Class boss. I am completing my unknown-entity analysis. Your achievement notifications and reward selections have been minimized, as requested, and await your perusal.”
“Not the boss, dummy! Why are all the TDMs frozen?”
For some reason, the AI didn’t reply. Lynn was distracted from asking again by her squad leaders’ insistent voices. She scooped up her weapons—still warm, but touchable—and started barking orders.
“Green Wing, Gold Wing, double-time it to the other side of the ring where those monsters are thinnest and start shanking the bastards. Open us a hole. I don’t know what’s going on, but let’s not waste the opportunity. Gold Spear, comb the area, grab any items you can find. No point wasting good loot. Green Spear, spread out. Thin the ranks of TDMs closest to us. Go for highest class and rack up the experience.”
Her Hunters moved with renewed energy as half of them sprinted across the wide-open space of grass left by Gyges’ much-deserved demise. The rest hurried this way and that, mercilessly tearing into the mysteriously immobile monsters.
Then, as suddenly as the silence had descended, it lifted. A clamoring roar washed over them and the ranks of TDMs surged forward. Hunters backpedaled and shifted stances, retreating from their previously helpless prey, though they kept at their assigned tasks.
Lynn stood at the base of the node tower in the middle of the open grass and spun in a quick circle, taking a few precious seconds to survey the swiftly contracting ring of monsters around them. The ranks of TDMs were not as thick to the south where her wings were trying to break through, but they wouldn’t be able to make a hole before the avalanche of TDMs on every other side buried them.
Time to make the call.
“Good work, Skadi’s Horde! We killed the boss and got the loot. What do you say we make ourselves scarce? Or does anyone have a death wish?”
“Aw, spoil sport!” came Edgar’s voice over the channel. “I was gonna go out in a blaze of glory!”
Lynn rolled her eyes. “That was a rhetorical question. If there’s no one else who’d prefer to stay and die a glorious death, then everyone exit combat mode. Go!”
Hugo obliged and the clamor of sounds and the flashing movement of hundreds of monsters abruptly vanished. For a moment Lynn could only stand there, ears ringing, catching her breath.
Then the cheering started.
A smile spread across Lynn’s face at the sounds of celebration, animated chatter, and backslapping filling the grassy clearing.
They’d done it.
She had done it. Not a virtual alias hiding in the shadows, but her. In the real. Leading people who liked and respected her.
A strange buoyancy filled her chest. Was it . . . hope? She’d defied her fears and spat in the face of her doubts. She’d fought for victory and had won.
For the first time since she’d joined Skadi’s Wolves, she genuinely believed they might win the championship.
All she had to do was keep fighting.