Ultimatum: The Proving Grounds (38 page)

The new members were outfitted in their black armor and given vials like everyone else had been. Paul had told people to preserve them before, and everyone had. Toby wasn’t really part of that particular play, but even before it had been explained he could clearly see those weren’t pots to heal or regain resources. They would have long since been downed if they were.

The groups were rearranged to get back to the standard one tank, one healer, and four DPS setup. Toby’s normal group was reformed with Paul as his tank, Claire as the healer, and Amos, Jesse, and Carol as the other DPS.

It was nice. Familiar.

Though he’d just been getting to know his new friends on team “Hit the thing as hard as you can, preferably in the face.” They were good people too.

The groups formed up outside the last door.

Paul stood before them with his back to it. “Well, this is it. Beyond this door lies the last challenge we face under the rules we never intended. Win or lose, they should go away and we can all go back to skipping quest text and comparing gear scores.” He tried to keep a straight face, but he failed.

There were chuckles among the crowd.
“I’m not going to lie. This won’t be easy. He’s going to use every trick he can to try and screw us over. We weren’t supposed to get this far, certainly not this fast. But we’re better than Mr. Miller would give us credit for. Much better. In the months to come we may not be the top raiding guild, but you can be sure no one else has made it this far today. We’re the first. And all of us are here because we worked for it. So, good on you. You put in the time and the effort, and you managed to make it through in one piece. Given the number of people that didn’t, that’s no small achievement, whether you work with us or not.” He nodded aside. “Jesse?”

She stepped up beside him. “This is the big bad. A dragon, in case some of you hadn’t heard. Avoid standing in front because of breath attacks, but also avoid the back because of the tail swipes. Your best bet is to stand on either side between the front and rear legs. Too far backward or forward and you’re liable to get kicked away.

“The dragon has a gust attack it can use, lifting off the ground and sending down gusts of air by beating its wings. It will throw anyone in close away and cause damage when you hit the ground. It’s only supposed to go off at set percentages so we can anticipate it, but with an actual person controlling the dragon you’ll just have to keep an eye out for it. It has a cooldown and a warning indicator on the ground. If you don’t notice that, just hightail it out when it lifts off the ground.

“Other than that? At 50% it’s supposed to do some stomps that raise rocky outcroppings to make it harder to maneuver, but you can duck behind them for cover from the wind and fire. Not sure if that’s going to happen at all this time.”

Paul nodded. “It’s entirely possible he’s planning to cheat. One of two things will happen: we go in and fight the dragon as usual, burn him down, swap tanks, dance out of circles, etc. Or, we go in and find he’s immortal and you can’t harm him at all. If thats the case, use the flashiest abilities you have. We’ll keep him blinded and distracted because that means his GM status is active.”

Which meant Toby only had to hit him once. Soulbreaker was anathema to GMs.

That was why Toby would be going in last.

It had taken them a few minutes to convince him.

Paul turned and laid his hand on the door. “We’ve got this. I’ll see you at the loot rolls.”

Dust fell from the edges of the door as it shifted. The door leading ahead was part of a pair of doors, again much larger than a normal person would need. There was no reason to open both, so they didn’t. It took a moment for the door to move far enough for them to see inside.

The round stone chamber beyond was empty.

Paul spoke aside to empty air. “Alright Tim, go tell them.” Then he glanced back and nodded over his shoulder. “Alright, form a circle around the edge. It minimizes what the dragon can do when it lands. I want people to line up sprawling out in the order their names appear in the group window. Tanks, healers, then the DPS. There are some pillars left, it’s a good idea to use them as cover until the fight gets going in earnest. And if you’re close, duck behind them for the wind gusts.”

They filed in one at a time. The four tanks went in first, fanning out with their shields held high. Well, the ones that had them. Mark had a big sword, but he was holding it defensively.

The others followed and moved as they had been told, forming a half circle in the room, spreading out so they were not easy targets for cone or area attacks.

Toby was the last one in the door.

It shut behind him with a boom.

All eyes turned to him. He shrugged. “Wasn’t me.”

Paul shook his head as he looked back into the center of the room. He kept his shield up.

The place was empty. Toby had to shade his eyes from the light entering via a large hole in the ceiling. He glanced about.

“Looks clear.”

Mark kept his sword up but cut his eyes about the room. “Where else would he be? This was the challenge he issued. What does he gain by fleeing?”

Kelly frowned. “Targets. He could be out slaughtering cities with that dragon.”

Paul shook his head. “No. He tried to cast us as the villains. Flying around burning cities isn’t something he can pin on us, and he could have done it at any time. Besides, he set events in play as soon as we entered. Everyone else is busy with those. Maybe losing. He doesn’t need to see to it personally.”

A loud boom sounded from the roof and the room shook. A shadow passed over the hole in the roof. Shining talons appeared at the edges of the hole. Bits of stone and masonry fell down into the chamber as an elongated leathery snout filled with fangs appeared before the opening. Nostrils flared before an eye finally appeared as the head moved.

“Ah, there you are.” Miller’s voice was the same, though it seemed lower and… gravely coming out of the dragon. “Took you long enough.”

Toby tilted his head. Not exactly the demeanor he would expect from a dragon. Then again, Miller had no cause to humor them.

The dragon barely fit through the opening. It kept its wings tucked in close as it slithered its head in first, its long sinewy neck snaking back and forth while the rest of it followed. Its four feet crashed down onto the the stones as one, leaving long claw marks a few inches deep. The head raised. “Cramped in here.” The dragon’s head shifted back and forth like a man trying to get a crick out of his neck. “Besides, I figured you were done with the extras outside.”

Paul’s eyes narrowed.

Toby blinked.

Damn.

Of course, he was right. The door was shut. It wasn’t like someone could run out and add them to the raid group.

Either way, this was the end.

The dragon’s mouth managed to turn up as Miller chuckled. “Aww, did I make you angry?”

Toby didn’t know if anyone else was looking… but he could see a bit of the dragon’s health missing.

The reserve members had fought it and hurt it. Standard dragon fight, then.

Toby drew his sword. He had his instructions…

Paul was the first to pull a vial from his inventory. He glanced over his shoulder and gave Toby a nod. Others were already taking out their own vials.

Miller tilted his dragon head, seemingly amused.

Once everyone but Toby had a vial in hand, three members of the raid group shifted around a bit. All of them were rogues. They looked back and forth at each others, spread out as evenly as possible, and all lifted their hands at the same time. They threw… things down at the floor, causing smoke to cover the raid group.

Miller laughed. “Really? That’s your strategy? One gust of wind and it’s gone. And you have too many melee DPS for that to work anyway. They’ll need to come out eventually.”

It only took a few moments for the smoke to clear… a distraction tactic the rogues would typically use to get away or pop into stealth.

But not this time.

When the smoke cleared a full raid group of twenty four Tobin Ironblood’s faced Miller.

Toby had shifted a few feet in the smoke. Everyone had. He didn’t need to go far, he just needed to not be standing precisely where Miller had seen him.

He grinned a bit in spite of himself. Fortunately the helmet hid it.

Toby was Miller’s target. His
only
target. If he died the game was over, so Paul’s plan was to drag that conflict out as long as possible to give them a chance.

It was Miller’s fault that he was facing this. His time impersonating Mitchel had given Paul the idea. It was why he had switched all his apothecaries from making healing items the night before. They had toiled away all night making minor illusion pots.

The dragon’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, very clever. But useless, really.” Its head reared back as firelight appeared in its mouth.

The raid group divided, half moving to the left and the other half to the right. The groups had been set up to break that way before they ever came in. Miller was a thinking enemy, so the old rules for the fight wouldn’t apply unless he wanted them to.

But fortunately some things were hard coded. The dragon couldn’t move while charging or firing a breath attack, so they could get out of the way if they were fast enough.

Fire buffeted the doorway they had been standing against as Miller’s dragon vomited up the gout of flames, its head practically on the floor.

The raid group engaged.

Melee fighters ran in close, swinging at the ribs between the dragon’s legs while ranged DPS tried to move around to hit it from anywhere behind its rib cage to keep the dragon from blocking or parrying.

The four tanks were in close, swinging away as healers kept to the pillars for now.

He could tell them apart. The illusion didn’t change their animations, really. The healers might look like him, and their main hands might hold illusory Soulbreakers, but they didn’t wield them like great swords. That and the lights they threw about made it clear they were casters. The same went for many of the ranged DPS.

Toby could spot Paul easily enough. He held his Soulbreaker in one hand and moved his other arm as though it had the weight of a shield. Three of the tanks did, but Paul was closest to the front.

Apparently the minor illusion effect was new. A mostly useless effect that no one had considered to be of use until Toby had told Paul to consider new code when it came to dealing with Miller. Making one player look like another might have some use, but the illusion was dispelled the moment that person took any damage, so it was balanced and mostly useless. A toy. A diversion.

Except when it came to fooling a thinking foe.

Miller’s health bar was already dropping. The dragon was just finishing the breath attack. None of the raid members had been struck by it, so all of them maintained their illusions.

Toby, meanwhile, had moved around to the back of the room and was waiting behind a pillar. He did more damage than the others with his screwy sword but the damage spike might cause Miller to notice him. The fight would go on longer this way, but until he broke the rules and his GM invulnerability kicked in Soulbreaker’s special power wouldn’t work. He was a man acting as a dragon, true, but he wasn’t using any GM abilities as the dragon. The game considered him to
be
the dragon right now. He was safe behind the rules set up so GMs could run live events.

At least, that was how Paul had explained it outside.

The dragon took wide swipes with its front right leg, but the wind up time made it simple for people to get out of the way or block it. He was swinging at them like a man, ignoring most of the things the dragon could do.

The dragon beat its wings and lifted itself a few feet off the ground. “Enough! This is idiotic. You can’t hide forever.”

The tooth filled maw lit up once again, but with the dragon in the air they couldn’t retaliate much. A few arrows and spells, but not sustained DPS.

Worse, it was much more difficult to gauge where the breath attack would go.

Toby stayed behind his pillar as the others scrambled for cover.

The dragon looked straight down as its jaws spread wide, the flames falling down to the ground and spreading out over the floor.

The widened attack, flames fueled by the flapping wings, stretched nearly to the circle of pillars at the edge of the room. It didn’t seem to cause much in the way of damage… but many of the raid members lost their disguises. Paul was among them.

He lowered his flaming shield. “So, playing by the book is too good for you?”

Miller scoffed. “What purpose is there in it? I am beyond you. Completely. You’re gnats buzzing about.”

“Yeah.” Paul glanced about. “Seems like you haven’t swatted anyone yet. And your health isn’t exactly full. Maybe we’re more trouble than you thought.”

The dragon landed in a single swooping motion, all four feet striking the ground swiftly enough to cause it to shake as the maw hovered inches from Paul. The gust of wind from the descending dragon threw dust about the room. The wings flapped even as it stood, sending out more gusts that kept the raid back. They tried to push against the wind, but couldn’t move forward. It didn’t seem to cause any damage, though, as several Tobins still looked on.

“You talk big, Paul, but you’re no leader. You built up pawns to throw at me. I watched. They’re replaceable pieces to you. No names. Just classes. Ticking boxes on the spreadsheet.”

Paul narrowed his eyes. “Tony. Hal. Tina. Jeff. Mary.”

The dragon’s head reared up a few inches, the eyes moving as if he believed Paul was calling out attack orders.

But no one moved.

“Those are the five that fell before. They did their job. They walked in here knowing the risks. And when this is over and done, they’ll be fine and you’ll be arrested. They trusted in that and were willing to fight and fall for the cause.” Paul shifted his stance. “So it’s time to make good on my promise.”

His sword and shield shined in the light of a few standing fires about the room. Miller hadn’t reacted before Paul seemed to vanish and appear several feat closer, both hands holding an axe that buried its head deep in the dragon’s throat.