Predator - Chapter 23

Auras glowed dimly up and down the labyrinth walls.  Bruce crouched next to a corner, perfectly still.  It had taken him a day or so of hunting to fully realize that he was a psychic construct that didn’t need to breathe.  Now, there was nothing to betray his presence as Bruce lay in wait.

The monster’s cart creaked as it pulled itself along the ground.  It wasn't loud, but the whine of metal on metal echoed through the otherwise silent hallway.  Bruce felt his fingers tighten around the handle of his hammer.  If there were any blood flowing through his hands, he was sure that his knuckles would have been white.

It rounded the corner, sightless face meeting his hammer with a thunderous crash.  The blow didn’t kill it immediately, but Bruce sprang into the open, slamming his shield into its head and knocking the surprised monster backward.

Before it could recover, Bruce flipped the hammer in his hand, aiming the wicked spike on its back toward the side of the creature’s head.  The monster managed to open its mouth and spit out its tongue, but the shield held it in place, cracks appearing in the energy field as the attack rocked Bruce’s left arm backward and sent a twinge of pain into his shoulder.

Bruce grunted, driving the point of the hammer into the side of the monster’s head.  His initial blow had cracked the hard sphere that passed for its skull, letting the spike cleanly pierce through its defenses and lodge itself deep inside his opponent’s head.

It jerked once before slumping in the carriage, flecks of energy beginning to float upward off of its lifeless body.  Bruce jumped off of the monster’s body, sighing as he dismissed his weapons.

“Are you done yet?”  Kassar asked sourly.  “It’s all well and good that you’ve managed to kill another denizen of the labyrinth, but each of these fights is slow and risky.  For every solitary monster you’ve slain, we’ve had to run away from a half dozen pairs or trios.  I think you’ve established that fighting on the fourth floor isn’t suicide, but that doesn’t make it a good or an efficient idea.”

“Outside of general dissatisfaction,” Bruce replied, twisting his back from side to side in order to work out the kinks he had earned by standing perfectly still for hours at a time, “I’m not sure I get it.  If I travel up to the third floor, the monsters will be worth significantly less EXP.  Why would I not want to fight the strongest things I can?  So long as I have Eyes of the Void I can avoid ambushes and surprise them one at a time.”

“Sure,” Kassar said slowly, like he was lecturing a child.  “That would be the case if you could handle anything the fourth floor could throw at you.  Instead, you are spending hours at a time sneaking and hiding in order to shape your encounters into situations that you could win.  Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the epiphany that made you realize that you didn’t want to die miserably and have your psychic energy ripped from your corpse, but all of that time could be better spent rampaging through entire crowds of opponents on the second or third floor.”

Bruce stopped stretching, brow furrowing in thought.

“I suppose that does make sense.  I need to get back to the real world eventually anyway.  I have no idea what Maddox is up to, but if what you said about Treekipp is true-“

“It is,” Kassar growled.  “Their entire race is deceitful.  It is in their blood.”

“Right,” Bruce replied, unwilling to argue with the alien.  “Regardless, I’ve been buried in the depth of the maze for a while now.  I’ll be honest, without proper days or nights I don’t even know how long it’s been.  It seems like as good a time as any to spend the EXP I have and start tackling staircases.”

He took one last look around the sprawling hallways with Eyes of the Void before turning and beginning the walk back to the sanctuary he had been using in between experience runs.

“Remember,” Kassar chimed in, the heat leaving his voice now that they were no longer talking about Bruce’s former guide.  “It is still not time for you to spend your EXP on the patterns that will help you survive on the surface of this planet.  None of them are terribly expensive, but for now, increasing your ability to quickly fight your way through large numbers of opponents should be the top priority.  After all, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to earn more EXP before you make it to an exit.”

“That sounds fun and exciting,” Bruce said with a chuckle, flattening his body against the gray walls of the maze to avoid stepping on a trap trigger that glowed an angry red in his aura sight.  “You know Kassar, I took a job in space because I thought working for an army buddy that ran a cyber security consulting business sounded boring.  Now, as much fun as it has been spending the last God knows how long in the bowels of this monster with you, I wonder if I made the wrong call.  Boring seems pretty appealing right about now.”

“It won’t for long,” Kassar replied smugly.  “You may be descended from the priest caste, but deep in your heart Bruce, you are a warrior.  Anxiety and worry may crop up in between battles while you are on campaign, I shared the same feelings in my youth, but conflict is as much a part of you as your blood and fur.  You would go mad without the challenge, without a way to push yourself and discover where your limits truly are.”

“But I don’t have any fur,” Bruce responded, weaving his way through a number of auras that would call every monster within a mile were he to touch them.  In the distance he could make out a trio of the blind charioteers wheeling themselves through the corridors of the labyrinth.  They were behind enough corners and sharp turns that he wouldn’t be running into them anymore, but they were enough of a reminder of the maze’s dangers that he increased his gait.

Even if the Eyes of the Void gave him an almost unassailable advantage in scouting, there was no reason to push his luck.  The sooner Bruce was back in his sanctuary, the sooner he could dive back into his psyche and pick out new patterns.

“You have fur in spirit,” Kassar said approvingly.  “You might not have the raw power of the warrior caste when I was one of their generals, but I will be honest Bruce.  Since I have known you, you have handled yourself better than most silverbacks I served with.  Many, if thrown into the depths of the Great Predator with nothing more than the patterns available to small children, would either give up and die or challenge the strongest opponent they could in order to make their demise as honorable and quick as possible.”

“Thanks I think,” Bruce replied, ducking into the sanctuary.  “I’m not sure that the ladies would appreciate me being quite as fuzzy as you, but I’m pretty sure I get what you’re trying to say, and I’ll take it in the spirit that it was given.”

“Of course,” Kassar continued, “that doesn’t change the fact that you are skipping through the jaws of the Great Predator with the awareness and combat talents of a toddler.”

“And here I thought we were going to have a breakthrough in our relationship,” Bruce said with a theatrical sigh.  “We were about to the part where we hugged each other and cried about how our fathers’ were emotionally distant and our mothers’ complained about how we were never good enough, but you had to go and ruin it.”

He sat down, settling his body against one of the sanctuary’s walls and closed his eyes.  In barely a second, Bruce felt his awareness sinking toward the jungle island.

Sand shifted under his back, and Bruce opened his eyes to see the sun hanging overhead in a blue, cloudless sky.  He muttered a curse to himself as he shaded his face with his left hand and sat up.  To his right sat the ocean, crashing gently against the beach, and to his left where the three sandbars full of shells that represented his path.

A loud ‘crack’ was his only warning.  Bruce threw himself to the side as a rounded shuffleboard stone zipped past him, hitting the sand and sending a cloud of white powder everywhere.

“What is WRONG with this game!”  Kassar’s voice thundered from behind him.

Bruce turned around to see silver alien towering over the shuffleboard table, glowering down it with enough rancor that he half expected to see its lacquered wood buckling.

“Are you sure it’s a problem with the game?”  Bruce asked, standing up and brushing the sand from his clothes.  “It seemed to work fine for me when we were playing.  I think you’re just using a bit too much force when you’re tossing your stones.”

Kassar lifted a hand.  The shuffleboard stone that had been embedded in the dune next to Bruce disappeared only to rematerialize in the big alien’s furry mitt.  Wordlessly, he put it back on the table.

The dead warrior closed his eyes, taking a deep breath that ended in a brief shudder.  When he reopened them, Kassar seemed much calmer.

“And why are you here Bruce?  Is it to select new abilities or do you simply want to make fun of my developing shuffleboard skills?  I can assure you, I will be practicing the game day and night, and it is only a matter of time before I will be able to consistently beat you.”

“I’m here to find new patterns,” Bruce replied with a quick smile as he turned to face his brightly clothed companion.  “Although if you keep playing like that I’m likely to upgrade dodging and evasion abilities on my own.  You threw that stone at me pretty fast.”

“It was meant to knock a piece in the three-point zone into the gutter,” Kassar said unhappily.  “Not concuss you.  I swear, every time I think that I’m getting better at this stupid game I either throw a stone so gently that it fails to score or I destroy a significant piece of the landscape.”

“You could just not play?” Bruce suggested.  He nodded toward the three sandbars.  “Anyway, I was going to start digging through patterns, I don’t suppose you have any advice for me?  Something that might work with my combat style?”

“Only if you can give me some tips on how to play shuffleboard,” Kassar replied mulishly.  “I’m sick and tired of you wiping the floor with me every time we play.”

“Seriously?” Bruce asked, incredulous.  The alien didn’t reply, just staring sternly back at him, a ridiculous figure in his too tight Hawaiian shirt.

“Fine,” he said, waving a hand at the ghost.  “You’re better than me at everything so I don’t know why me having one game where I can beat you is a big thing, but I’ll try to help you out if you give some advice on which patterns to select.  It’s not that picking the right ones won’t help both of us after all.”

Kassar waved a hand and four of the shells on the sandbars began to glow of their own accord.  The alien warrior didn’t bother to look at them, instead turning his attention back to the shuffleboard table.

“You’re at what, 400 EXP Bruce?  I’d suggest Armor of the Stellar Knight, a boost to Agility and Body, and an enhancement for your hammer.  I picked Returning which will let the hammer dissolve and reappear in your hand for a slight expenditure of mental focus, but Homing, Penetrating, and Weight Modification are all decent options as well.  Still, Returning conjoined with Gravity Hammer will let you do some decent damage for your level at a distance, something that you are missing right now.”

“I actually have 487,” Bruce replied, squinting at the glowing shells.  “The rest of patterns make sense, but what is Armor of the Stellar Knight?  I don’t think I’ve heard of that one before.”

Kassar grunted and another shell started glowing.  “I haven’t brought up the Armor of the Stellar Knight because it’s expensive and your shield covered most of your defensive weaknesses,” the alien responded, still not caring enough to look up from the shuffleboard.  “I think the Rigellian version you might be more familiar with, Phase Armor.  Armor of the Stellar Knight functions more like a weapon pattern than a simple ability like Phase Armor.  It provides complete coverage of your body, and you can upgrade it as you gain more EXP.  Right now it is noticeably more powerful than Phase Armor, but with a couple more levels you can start adding on regeneration and area of effect enhancements that will improve your capabilities by leaps and bounds.”

“That sounds useful,” Bruce said thoughtfully.  “I’ve been pretty good about not getting hit so far, but between getting winged by one of those lightning balls and the poison in the charioteers’ tongue blades, armor would be pretty helpful.”

“I highlighted another pattern to increase your willpower,” Kassar responded absently.  “At your level, most of the combat patterns aren’t all that useful.  They seem interesting, but compared to superior strength and dexterity they don’t mean all that much.  Worse, without the will to back them up, a combat ability isn’t much more than a waste of EXP.  There will be time for you to learn flashy abilities that can stun enemies and awe potential mates later.  For now, focus on the fundamentals.  You have one useful attack ability, you can defend yourself, and you can attack at range.  The next step is honing both your attributes and your skills to a razor’s edge.”

Bruce thought back to his previous fights.  Gravity Hammer had helped as had his upgraded weapon pattern, but as he replayed the struggles in his mind, he couldn’t help but agree with Kassar.

The abilities were useful, but the deciding factor in most fights was his resourcefulness and sheer physical power.  If he could dodge enemy blows with his agility and counter attack with enough weight behind his hammer to crack through their shells, that should be enough to carry him through any struggle.  Transforming himself into a ball of fire or shooting bolts of lightning once before he exhausted himself might look impressive, but against multiple foes it would do more harm to him than the enemy.

With a brief nod to himself, Bruce took off in a jog toward the water.  The shells that represented his new abilities winked in the sand like stars glittering in the night sky.

“Wait!”  Kassar’s shout stopped him.  Bruce looked up where the hulking alien loomed over the shuffleboard table, muscular arms practically bursting out of his out of place Hawaiian shirt.

Bruce cocked his head to the side, brow furrowing.

“Remember our deal,” the phantom yelled.  “As soon as you’re done assimilating the new abilities, you have to get up here and teach me the secrets of this infernal game.”

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