Ultimatum: The Proving Grounds (27 page)

It was kinda crazy. Paul had been keeping them hidden away and working quietly, but all the while support had been building for them anyway. It was with them now, and the whole dynamic of leveling had changed.

They had not run into an event yet, just followed the breadcrumbs of level appropriate enemies and those just beyond their own level.

They were four levels up this morning. Thirty four. Of fifty. Crazy.

And on a weekday. Didn’t these people have jobs?

Not that he was going to bring that up. He was happy to have them out there.

Unfortunately there wasn’t much in the way of amazing new abilities waiting for Toby up the barbarian advancement tree. His last and potentially best one was damage resistance. It was enough to give him some pause when he considered advancement moving forward. Increase damage resistance marginally to try and shrug off weak attacks entirely, build up the chance of Uncanny Dodge and how often it could proc, or keep dumping points into his combo and shock wave abilities to make his damage output better. After all, if everyone else was doing their job correctly, he shouldn’t be getting hit in the first place. Of course, that meant nothing at all against the players who were gunning for him. Decisions, decisions.

He wasn’t entirely sure, and he was sitting on points because of it. Damage was the classes very point, but if he was dead his damage output was going to be zero.

On the other hand, while the defenses were a bit sub par but were helpful out here, they might not help at all in a raid situation which was undoubtedly where Miller was going with this top of the mountain hardest content play.

So he kept close to the group. He chopped things that needed chopping and spent his stat points with the usual stamina bias. He knew first hand how hard it was to take down Bulorn and his pile of hit points. He wanted anyone that came up against him to have the same problem. Only worse.

Let them swing, he would stand there and laugh.

Well, he would probably swing back, but he would have the option of standing there and laughing.

They had fought with Carol before so it wasn’t terribly strange to have her along… but he was still getting used to Tim not being there. He was still in the pit, of course. His new responsibility was monitoring the screens and feeding them information.

Super useful.

Still not the same.

Paul raised a hand to shade his eyes. “Mobs are thinning out. We’ll need to move on again soon. Lets do a clean sweep, though. Feel free to spread out a bit, but stay in sight.” They were only a sliver away from thirty five, but Paul didn’t ever seem to weigh things in such terms.

At least not openly.

He nodded to Claire. “You’re with Toby. He’s more important than I am and I’m sure Jesse can keep me alive for a few minutes.”

Jesse shrugged. “I dunno, you’re totally reckless. I saw you eat an Oreo one time.”

Paul ignored her. “And everyone else will be free of her commentary for a few minutes. The sacrifices I make for my people.” He shook his head.

Claire nodded and stepped over to stand beside Toby. They turned and started off toward a few of the straggler mobs. Bandits. Not nearly the threat they once were.

“So,” he raised an eyebrow, “you wanna hit them with your hammer?”

“I do. I really do. All this healing… ugh. Mind numbing.”

“Well I am a fair and benevolent dictator. You may hit them with your hammer.”

“Hmm.” She nodded. “I think I’ll support your administration in the days to come.”

He drew his sword and nodded. “Appreciated, though as a dictator, it’s an empty gesture.”

She rolled her eyes. “Remind me again why I like you?”

“I’m awesome?”

“That must be it.” Her hammer careened into the face of a standing bandit. He gave out what little of a surprised cry he could with a face full of hammer. He tumbled away, but got his hands and feet under him and made to stand.

Toby buried Soulbreaker into his back while he was still on the ground. The bandit fell limp to the dirt.

She was no slouch in a fight, then. The bandit had already lost a considerable amount of health before Toby even touched him. Maybe she
was
wasted on all the healing.

He threw Soulbreaker into a distant bandit who fell down as the sword struck him. He got back up and charged them as the sword reappeared in Toby’s hand.

Its appearance hadn’t changed any more… but it was still strange to his eyes. He readied the sword to parry the bandit but Claire stepped in front of him and bashed the poor man into the dirt with her hammer. He gave a whimper and moved to try and stand again but Claire rained blows on him until he stopped.

Toby raised an eyebrow. “Yeesh.”

Claire smiled at her hammer. “I might have put a few points into combat abilities.”

“No complaints here.”

“Keep it under your hat. Hood. Thing.”

His hood was resting on his back. There were times it was a boon, but having no name plate at all made him stand out from the crowd in some ways, making him more of a target, especially given a casual glance that didn’t involve reading everyone’s names.

The helmet might have provided more defense… but it also narrowed his field of view. He really wouldn’t have time to swap it out in a crisis either, so the hood remained. He liked the hood better anyway, and not just because it belonged to his friend. He intended to give it back when all this was done. He was just holding it. Keeping Tim’s presence alive.

“Remind me not to piss you off.”

She wiggled her eyebrows at him. “I
do
know where you sleep.

“About that, I’m game to spend tonight like last night, but can I argue for lying down? My neck is still bugging me.”

Claire’s hammer bashed the chest of the last bandit in range. The poor sap had run right at them. “Big bad barbarian man complaining about his poor wittle sore neck.”

“Hey, my neck is very fragile, and this headset is kinda heavy.”

She beat down the bandit with her own combo of swings. Bright white light trailed the hammer head. “You get used to it… eventually.”

“Makes my head feel really light after I take it off.”

The bandit keeled over and the bright light and gong sound appeared.

Paul hadn’t been wrong then. Thirty five. Toby wondered what, if anything, he was going to get. Probably just more of the same points.

He tried to open his skill window, but his character didn’t move.

“The hell?”

His voice didn’t play in the game. His character twitched slightly. He could barely see an icon beside his name in the party panel to the left for all the light show around him.

Paralyzed.

“Hey hey hey, something very wrong here.” He raised his voice, hoping someone in the room would do something. “Can’t move my character, this is bad.”

He could see Claire as the light faded. She was standing still as well, her eyes wide.

The same icon had appeared beside her name.

Tim’s voice was barely audible over the game. “Hey man, hold on, they’re coming.”

“Tobin Ironblood.” A voice practically purred the name. “My first big score in the released game. Sadly I lost my beta head count.”

A women stepped in front of him. She was decked out in black with a hood and a mask hiding her face. She was smiling, though. He could see it in her eyes.

“Everyone thinks they’re so safe when they level up. Sure, it gives you hit points, but it also makes you practically blind and fully deaf for a few moments.” She twirled a dagger around her fingers. “And a moment is all it takes.” Something green was dripping from the dagger.

Damn it. How long was this going to last?

She put the poisoned dagger away and drew a sword. “I think Kingslayer is a wonderful title for the worlds premiere assassin, don’t you? I was overjoyed when I heard it was on offer. People will be hiring me for years because of this.”

She held the sword out behind her, readying a horizontal swing.

Damn it Paul, where are you?

An arrow struck the woman. She jerked her head but looked back. The mirth had left her eyes. She swung.

The blade struck him soundly, his health dropping below fifty percent.

From one blow.

Damn.

She readied another swing, but she disappeared from view in a black blur.

The sounds of a scuffle followed, but he couldn’t turn his head. Was it Amos? He had a bow. He had shot her and Paul had taken her down. Good plan.

The icon beside his name began to blink. The effect was wearing off.

Fucking finally.

He lurched forward once he was able. The character’s movement’s weren’t perfect, but they were better than nothing. He lifted his sword and turned to face the struggle.

Mitchel was standing and putting his sword away. He looked up at Toby and shook his head. “I can’t leave you alone for five minutes.”

Toby sighed. The assassin was dead. “Are there any more?”

Mitchel shrugged as he retrieved his bow. “Keep an eye out.”

Claire lurched forward. “Son of a bitch that was close.”

Toby nodded. “Okay, clearly Scooby Doo rules don’t work out.”

She bowed her head to Mitchel. “Lucky you were close by.”

He nodded. “The dragnet isn’t all that far ahead, really. Yell loud enough and you’ll get a few more. But I was heading this way to report in.”

“You found something?”

“An event.” He pointed. “Off that way. Some sea monster things.”

Toby’s pocket shook. He reached down to fetch his phone. It took some doing with the gloves on.

Mitchel: hey died while dragnetting

Mitchel: on your own

Mitchel: watch for sneaky types

Mitchel: best of luck man

Toby put his phone back in his pocket.

Mitchel
was standing there. “What’s up?”

“Nothing major.” He shrugged. “Text from my mom. You remember my aunt that was cosplaying at the last comic convention? I introduced you. Anyway she fell off her bike. In the hospital. Nothing super serious. Mom thought I should know.”

He nodded. “Yeah, I remember. Hope she gets better.”

Swing and a miss. Toby had no such aunt, and neither he nor Mitchel had ever been to the local comic convention.

Paul and the others arrived, weapons at the ready. The lone assassin lay in the dirt.

Mitchel
waved. “Sup?”

Paul let out a sigh. “Close. Too close.” He shook his head. “No more splitting up for any reason, regardless of how safe we think we are.”

Toby nodded. “Sounds good.” He rubbed at his neck. “Life flashed before my eyes there. Lots of numbers and skill points, mostly. Kind of dull.”

Claire and Jesse both set about healing him back to full.

Paul nodded to
Mitchel
. “Good work.”

He nodded back. “Of course. And I come bearing news. An event. Little high, but it should serve if you’re careful.”

“That is good news. Excellent.” He glanced around and pointed. “Lets call in the dragnet or now and have everyone meet up over there. Those ruins should provide us some shelter while we break for lunch.”

Mitchel
nodded. “Sounds good.”

Paul sent out the broadcast message and location to everyone in the guild alliance. The dragnet had members from both.

They journeyed there on foot, with Toby keeping an eye on the man who, by all appearances, was Mitchel.

Except that he wasn’t. But if he was an assassin with a disguise, it was a good one. And he had killed the other assassin. Why? Competition? How had some random assassin known to take on this guise?

No. He was pretty sure that wasn’t the case.

They set up in the ruins. Toby was hidden away in an interior room with only one door, which was closed, and the hallway practically packed with guild members. No one was sneaking in.

He took his headset off and stretched his neck a bit. This was going to be awkward.

They had sub sandwiches brought in. They were good. Toby was quiet while they ate.

Paul ate with them. It was a first. He seemed in high spirits despite the close call. They were only fifteen levels from the cap, and they still had the better part of the day to work on that. They should easily hit forty and more today.

Toby took out his phone and read the messages again.

Fairly definitive.

He held his phone up. “We do have one problem.”

“Eh?” Paul looked up from his lunch. “What’s up?”

“That guy in there? That’s not Mitchel.” He handed the phone over.

Paul read the messages. He drew his eyebrows down and rubbed at his beard. “Can you call him?”

“He should be at work right now, but yeah.” Toby called the number.

It took a few rings, but it was answered. “Sup?” Mitchel’s voice.

“Hey, wondering what happened to you earlier.”

“Knifed in the back this morning, not too long after we started sending out people as part of the dragnet. I couldn’t get a message out fast enough to let anyone know. I assume my second in command picked up the slack, but I wanted to let you know anyway. Slipped my mind until I got into work, sorry. Bad traffic and then meetings.”

“Hey, no big. Thanks for telling me. We’ve still got this thing.”

“Word. Busy now, talk later.” Mitchel hung up.

Paul was frowning.

Jesse tilted her head. “Okay, so… who was that in game then?”

Jerry shrugged. “Gotta be Miller. He has a GM account, so he can look like anyone he wants. Even a player.”

“I guess. But why save Toby, then? Miller wants him dead.”

Paul shook his head. “We don’t know what Miller wants. He gave us a timetable, but that may be his timetable as well. Maybe Toby dying now doesn’t benefit him.”

Jerry nodded. “It’s a good spot for him. Close to Toby, but not someone in the building. He couldn’t know that Toby and Mitchel knew each other well enough to send texts. A lot of people talk to people inside they don’t know at all outside. It was a gamble he lost, but he won’t know that unless we tell him. So he’s around, and not part of our guild. We won’t get a notification if he drops from
his
guild, and he could knife Toby in the back whenever.”