Ultimatum: The Proving Grounds (40 page)

Rage was on cool down, and still would be long past the time all of this was over. Uncanny Dodge had gone off at some point, the stacks were building again.

He didn’t have much left to work with.

Miller must have figured that out. He wasn’t fighting back because there wasn’t any reason to.

The dragon… laughed at them. The laughter faded to chuckling, the dragon’s body shaking slightly as it did. “Oh well. It’s been fun, kid.”

A wave of energy washed out form the dragon, a sphere of swirling yellow that knocked Toby back into one of the stone outcroppings jutting out of the ground.

When his eyes worked again he saw the old man version of Miller standing in the center of the room.

He clapped. “Bravo. Well done. Fought all the way to the end, as if it mattered at all.”

Toby sneered. He kept Soulbreaker low at his side… this was its time to shine, but he needed to make use of it. He was afraid throwing it might not get the job done. Miller had seen him do it before and had managed to avoid it.

He needed to be in close.

“You accuse us of failing when you’ve been cheating from the start?” Toby took a few steps forward. He let all his anger show on his face. He needed to sell this.

Miller shrugged. “I didn’t cheat, I’m a GM. Just making it interesting is all.” His face shifted into a wide grin. “Is that so wrong?”

Paul appeared from beyond the ring of stones. “Yes.” He briefly glanced at Toby. What was he thinking? Whatever the message was supposed to be, Toby didn’t catch it.

He moved a few steps closer to Miller on the other side, his weapons put away.

Toby was careful to keep his angry expression. He understood. Paul was trying to do his job. He was tanking. Trying to distract Miller so Toby could get in the killing blow.

“You’ve never been one for playing it straight, though.” Paul shook his head. “If you’d just been loyal to the company, you’d still be with us. But no. Being the highest paid member on staff wasn’t good enough when you could make a few bucks more selling us all out on the side.”

It worked. Miller turned with a sneer. “You don’t know me. Don’t know what I’ve had to put up with. Everyone there was an ass.” His hand flew up, his index finger pointing at Toby. “And yet you all let this little prick in. Treat him like part of the team. And what is he capable of? If it’s even half of what I brought to the table, I’ll be amazed.”

Paul shook his head. “No, he’s no technical genius. But he is a decent person. Maybe even a good one. Gives a shit about someone other than himself.”

“Oh boo fucking hoo.” Miller shook his head. “A year ago we all thought this thing was vaporware. I doubt I’m the only one that decided to sell a few pieces, that
I
made by the way, to try and keep myself afloat.”

Paul was close now, well within the reach of his own sheathed sword. “And yet here we are, at release. New accounts being made even with people knowing about your shitty imposed rule set. As of this morning we’re pushing half a million accounts.” He shook his head. “It’s amazing what we accomplished after we brought in a few engineers to replace you that actually cared about the project.”

Miller narrowed his eyes, but his grin returned after a moment. “Took more than one to replace me, huh?”

“Does that even matter?” Paul scoffed. “The job got done. You’re not magical and you sure as shit were not irreplaceable.”

Miller scowled now. “Fuck you. You never would have made it without me.”

Paul spread his arms wide and cast his gaze around the room. “Looks like we did.”

“On the back of
my
work!” Miller’s voice grew louder and his eyes grew wide. “Me. My effort.”

Toby was close now, nearly in range of the sword. He felt fortunate he hadn’t picked a dagger based class.

Paul nodded. “You’re not wrong. But you were also not alone. We all built this together. You did your part. That doesn’t entitle you to everything.”

Miller shook his head. “I don’t want everything. I want what’s mine.”

Toby swung the sword as hard as he could.

It arced through the air, a red trail following behind.

Until it stopped dead.

Miller’s outstretched hand was holding the blade in place. He gripped it with his fingers like some kind of Kung Fu master. The edge hadn’t contacted. No harm had been caused.

His voice remained calm, more collected than he had been so far. “Did you forget who gave you that, boy?”

The sword was wretched out of Toby’s hands.

The point of the blade struck Paul in the chest.

He glanced down at it just before his character went limp and collapsed onto the floor. The bloodstained blackened steel remained in Miller’s hand.

33

The black metal blade hung in the air, glistening with red blood.

Paul lay still on the ground.

Miller casually glanced over his shoulder at Toby as he lowered the arm holding Soulbreaker. “So, Toby, right? How’s that ‘Hero’ bit working out for you?”

Toby scoffed. “Could probably be going better.”

“And I gave you every advantage.” Miller shook his head.

Toby wasn’t sure what would happen if Miller hit him with his own sword… but it wasn’t like he needed to. He could kill Toby any way he wanted.

Did it really matter at this point?

Toby considered it a moment as Miller turned to face him.

Yes. It mattered.

He wasn’t about to let this asshole win.

Besides, he’d cheated. Tim should be around any time now.

“Advantage? I knew nothing about the game, and you picked me because of it.”

Miller shrugged and held up the sword he still gripped by the blade. “Which is why I helped you out.”

Toby shook his head. “Oh, we know all about that. It’s got some shiesty code you wrote tied to it to make events more common.”

“Shiesty?” Miller looked genuinely hurt. “It’s damn good code. Stepped right around their ridiculous data structures without setting off a single red flag. That’s how it’s done
right
, kid. There’s no way in hell any of you would have leveled fast enough without this skewign the numbers. But then, you wouldn’t know that. You’re just some common
player
. I could be speaking Greek to you for all you know.” He sighed.

An arrow lodged itself in Miller’s side. He didn’t so much as flinch, but his eyes shifted.

Amos stood on one of the rock outcroppings, bow in hand, another arrow already nocked. “I understood all of it. And it’s bullshit.”

Miller narrowed his eyes as he turned. “Hi Jerry. Sorry about all this.”

“Clearly.”

The second arrow shook as it stood out of Miller’s chest.

He looked down at the arrow and frowned. “Now that is just downright unneighborly.”

With a wave of his hand Amos was sent flying across the room to strike the far wall.

His name plate in the group window went dark.

A ball of fire flew across the room.

Miller’s eyes grew wide for a moment before it struck.

He flinched.

There was no discernible harm when the fire faded away, but his mood had certainly changed. He glared at Carol, standing in the open between two of the rocks.

“You fools realize I can’t be hurt, right? That you’re wasting your time?” He held out his hand and cast it up over his head.

Carol was lifted off the ground and cast out the opening in the room in less than a second.

Miller just shook his head. “Stupid.”

Sharp barks split the air. Miller turned to see the charging wolf and held his arms up to protect himself.

The wolf’s jaws bit deep into the arm holding Soulbreaker.

Miller let out a yelp and opened his hand as he danced around the room trying to shake the wolf loose.

The sword fell from his grip but vanished before it hit the ground.

It reappeared in Toby’s hand.

He took a stab immediately, but he missed as Miller tried to shake the wolf from his arm.

He soon succeeded. The wolf fell loose and struck the ground.

Miller leveled his hand at it.

“Hey, fuckface.”

Miller rolled his eyes and glanced aside at Toby. “Be with you in a moment.” He looked back to find the wolf gone. He sighed. “All of this is much more irritating than I thought it would be.”

“Yeah? Well don’t worry, it gets worse.”

“I can hardly see how.”

Toby lifted the sword to a ready stance. “I’m going to take you down.”

Miller blinked a few times. “You’re not a fast learner, are you? Okay, whatever. Bring it on slugger.”

He could catch the sword, Toby knew that. But he had something else in mind. He charged in, sword held out before him. He let his voice raise into a cry of defiance as he closed the distance between them and swung… entirely too early and let the sword go. It flew across the room and clattered against the far wall.

Miller watched it fall. “Wow, you’re even worse at this than I thought. And that should be impossible. Fucking hell.”

Toby stepped in closer. “Maybe not.”

“No?” Miller turned his head back. Toby was close enough he would be able to smell him if they were outside the game. The older man held up his hand. “Whelp, guess we’re done here.”

“Yeah. I think so.” Toby’s closed hand was held up by Miller’s side. The sword had reappeared as it always did, the blade sticking through Miller’s model.

A character that sure as hell wasn’t friendly.

The game hadn’t registered a hit because Toby hadn’t moved yet. He gave Miller a smile as he yanked the sword free.

It came away bloody.

The image of Miller shimmered. No sound came out, but his face was that of screaming outrage.

It looked like whatever data spike thing Miller had written to target GMs was effective.

He let out a sigh and took a step back. He glanced about. “Jesse, you okay?”

“Woof.” Was the response he got.

Claire’s voice rang higher. “I’ve got her. We’re good.”

A strange sound caught Toby’s ear. He tilted his head. Maybe Carol was on the roof or something.

But no, the sound was coming from the glitched out image of Miller still standing in the room.

That wasn’t good.

Soulbreaker passed through the image with no resistance. It hadn’t so much as slowed down.

But the sound kept building. It became an irritating screeching that changed pitch every second or so.

Toby’s eyes grew wide as the image of Miller corrected itself.

And it moved.

“Oh, wow. That was close.” He shook his head a few times. “Whew. I mean, I wrote the code to protect myself from the attack
I
designed, but I’d never really had a chance to
test
it, you know? Just in a controlled environment.” He glanced around and faced Toby with a smile. “Well, successful test, I’d say.”

Toby leveled the sword.

Miller rolled his eyes. “It’s a paperweight now, kid. Kudos for thinking out of the box there, I hadn’t figured on the thing teleporting into me. Clever. But back when you just started throwing it at me like some sort of monkey, I was inspired to spend some time working up a solution just in case you ever got lucky.”

Toby glared at him. “So, there was no chance from the beginning. No fair play. Not for a second.”

Miller shook his head. “No. Of course not.”

“So why bother? Why are you here?”

“It doesn’t matter anymore. My work is done. I suppose part of me wanted to see the old team again. Felt like I owed them a fat lip.”

Toby stood up straight and shook his head. “You really are a prick.”

“Well that’s not very nice. I have half a mind to tell your mommy you’re using language like that, junior.” Miller lifted his hand, the open palm facing Toby. “Well, I’d like to say it’s been fun…”

He paused. Not so much as an eyelash moved. Still as a statue.

Toby glanced around, his sword held up again instinctively.

Miller didn’t move.

Claire and Jesse appeared from behind one of the nearby stone outcroppings. Claire moved to stand beside Toby while Jesse snuck up to Miller. She waved her hand in front of his eyes. She blinked a few times and glanced back at the others. “I think he’s link dead.”

A burst of white smoke appeared in the room. Tim stood at the center of it as it wafted away. “Son of a… Oh hey, it’s working.” He glanced around. “We were getting a freaking mail bomb or something on the GM channel. Couldn’t do a thing.” He rubbed at the back of his neck. “Guess he had a plan for us.”

Jesse pointed at Miller. “Nobody’s home.”

“Oh, no. He wouldn’t be. The cops found him. Like Paul said, they had almost tracked him before with the teleporting shell game, so they had a narrowed field to start with this time. Once he started actively doing stuff, from the moment he attacked the standby raiders outside really, they were sniffing at his traffic. As soon as they narrowed it down to a county they had squad cars rolling. They cut his power a minute or two ago.”

Toby let out a breath. He sheathed his sword and took a step toward the image of Miller. “So it’s done, then?”

Tim nodded. “Waiting for word on the radio, but I’d say this and the GM channel being free again confirms they had the right place.”

The face of Miller remained eerily still. Toby faced him once more. “Got you.”

The image of Miller disappeared.

A hollow boom of drums sounded about the room. A dead dragon appeared on the floor, as if they had slain it after all.

Jesse held up her hands. “Victory, motherfucker!”

Tim nodded. “Quite.”

Toby chuckled.

Claire stepped up beside him. “Hey, we did it.”

He nodded and turned a smile to her. “Yep.”

She smiled back.

He shifted his eyes about. “I think I’m about done wearing all this crap for today, what do you think?”

“Oh, definitely.” She made a few gestures and waved. She vanished a few moments later.

He brought up his menu.

“Hey!” Jesse waved her hands and pointed both of them at the dragon. “You can’t leave! Loot!”

“All yours.” Toby mashed the logout button.

Tim chuckled. “Let me go grab my dead guy. I’ll take some raid loot.”