Chapter 38: Lets Bloody Do This!

  The carved stone jaw dropped open, and a warm breath that stank of rotten burger meat billowed out, fluttering my tattered clothes. A deep, cylindrical tunnel, like the monstrous trachea of a giant glittered in the lithium-white light of my sabre. It was carved with obscene pictograms and was bloody horrifying. But then, so was I.

  I didn’t try to hide my presence, that time was long since past and took long strides down the gullet, letting my scorched boots thud against the obsidian. The steps echoed around me like a gurgling drain. Zephyra stayed silent, a pace behind. When I flicked a glance her way, that sharp little smile was nowhere to be seen.

  Hissing snippets leaked through my mind like a broken gas main as dozens of Prioritas held a whispered conversation. Behind them, I could just barely hear the roar of a cheering crowd. I clenched my jaw. Bastards wanted a show did they?

  As I travelled deeper, I opened my build menu. With a few mental flicks I spent a fraction of the enormous BP I had accumulated to start construction on a few simple pieces. I knew from experience that I could hold completed items in the menu’s temporary inventory for nearly an hour before they blinked away.

  The white light was tainted green as veins of jade spread through the tunnel walls. My shoulders tensed, muscles pulled tight as piano wire. It felt like the lithium glow of my sabre was being infected—and by the time we emerged into the towering cavern beyond, the world was drowning in virulent green.

  The chamber before me was huge, more than a hundred yards to a side, and rose to a natural cave ceiling thick with dripping stalactites. My attention locked on the stepped pyramid in the centre. It rose to half the height of the chamber, flawless, carved entirely from polished jade and though illuminated by reflected light, it seemed to drink it in.

  Those little hairs at the nape of my neck rose as my eyes found the summit. Upon the flat top stood three shadowed figures. Still. Silent. Watching.

  I felt Zephyra draw close, the currents of electricity that ran through her were familiar now. She spoke softly into my ear.

  “Just because there are three doesn’t mean they’re your team. It could be a trap.”

  Ariel’s HP dropped to 9%.

  Her words pissed me off. Of course it was a bloody trap. But the clock was ticking.

  “Knowing we’re about to be knee-deep in the shit doesn’t change a damn thing, Zephyra. We’re out of time.” My voice was harsher than I’d intended, but I didn’t have time to apologise.

  I turned my head slightly, just enough to see the Lutantha from the corner of my eye. She was studying me, her skin a sickly green in the infected light, twin emerald eyes unreadable.

  A notification popped the moment my boot hit the bottom step of the pyramid. Pre-Columbian EDM blasted to life as Priorita, as excited as ever, made an announcement that rattled my teeth.

  Boss Chamber Challenge—Stage Two!

  Yes, that’s right, you heard correctly—this is stage two of an ongoing boss battle! If you haven’t been watching: a party of Human contestants challenged the final boss of this Wargame Vault—the Stepped Tomb of Tlek’Vohr—and fell prey to the final boss. But not all party members were present during the attempt... and now one has returned to finish the job… or join his allies in death! How sweet!

  All betting will close 27 microseconds from the end of this announcement.

  I ignored and minimised the notifications as Priorita prattled on, cranking the sabre’s incandescent blade up another notch as I began the climb up the pyramid’s stepped sides. The sabre’s energy bar, pinned beneath my HP and MP, drained a little faster, but it was still slow. Compared to its maximum output, the brain scrambler was only just warming up. The heat energised me as my newly evolved body drank it in, while aroound me, the moss growing over the jade blocks began to smoulder. The stench of rotten hamburger meat rose stronger than ever—only now it smelled cooked.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  The unknown program’s install surged, feeding on the energy.

  For good or for ill, I’d soon know what it did.

  I heard a light whisk and turned sharply, my sabre before me. Zephyra had drawn her sword. It was long, slender and single-edged, much like the katana Seth had seen on a holiday to Osaka. She twirled it once and the blade glittered and split like a mirage as some unknown enchantment activated.

  She nodded to me. I continued my climb.

  On my hotbar, the flaming skull of Predator blinked. I clicked it, knowing I’d need every advantage. A heartbeat later, the guitar screamed to life. A little smile tugged at my lips as the heavy metal riff—flavoured with meso-American EDM—flooded my head. I heard a faint ping as my Cognitive Dissonance Resistance hit level 10 and upgraded to Mental Resistance 1. A weight I hadn’t realised I carried lifted.

  I toggled off infravision. It wasn’t necessary in the light of my sabre and fucked with my perception. Atop the pyramid, the three figures backed away from the edge and were gone.

  “Keep your eyes peeled. They might descend the other sides and try to flank us,” I whispered to Zephyra. “It’s one of Ariel’s go-to tactics.”

  “And if the red one—Patrick—tries to shoot us? We’re exposed.”

  I had to choke down my irritation at the question and the delay it caused. We were so close, and all I wanted to do was sprint up there and save my team. I took a deep breath. Predator might not have complete hold over me anymore, but it still made me twitchy and aggressive.

  You're a Killer Allan. Not a savior. I wasn't sure where the thought came from, but it stuck in my brain and wouldn't leave.

  My inventory popped open and I withdrew a shield—one I’d looted from the mountain of dead. I passed it to her. Wooden, it was enchanted to grow vines over anything pressed against it. She grew it securely to her forearm and nodded. I flicked open my build menu, snapping the temporary inventory strip into place above my hotbar. If Paddy tried to shoot me, I had my own counter.

  I continued the climb, but paused, turning back to her as I had an idea.

  “How much BP do you have?”

  A slight frown. Her eyes flashed.

  “None.”

  “Seriously?”

  I wanted to press her, but now wasn’t the time.

  We were nearly halfway up now and I turned to stare at the abandoned summit. What would I find there? I felt Zephyra drop back down a few steps. Hopefully to watch my back.

  It was time.

  Fear faded. No more hesitation. No more preparation.

  Action.

  I took a deep breath of the warm, rotten-hamburger scented air. Rolled my shoulders. Muttered, “Let’s bloody do this,” and propelled myself up the pyramid’s sides. In the reduced gravity, I covered half a dozen steps at a time.

  The music cranked louder as I ascended, guitar screaming in my ears. It rose again and again until I thought the stones should shake with it. The sabre’s incandescent blade ripped the air with its own counter-melody. A grin stretched across my face, and I didn’t bother to hide it. With a final pump of my legs, I leaped the last dozen steps to land atop the pyramid, my boots skidding as I landed upon the crusted plateau. The stone here was red, as though the blood of a thousand sacrifices had seeped into and stained the jade.

  A faint pop and the displacement of air was all the warning I needed. I slammed down the first of my temporary constructions: a crude wall of wood. A heartbeat later, the staccato drumbeat of fired darts rattled against it.

  Stormsense prickled as something shifted beneath my feet. I leaped as iron spikes jutted up from holes in the floor, mashing and smashing the wall I’d just erected.

  My grin widened. They’d have to do better than that.

  I cranked the intensity of the scrambler’s blade up another notch, and it shone like a star, banishing all remaining shadows. I flicked my leg and turned a backflip in the air—not because it was necessary, but just because I bloody well could. With my level, evolution, and stats, I was superhuman. Unstoppable. I could do whatever I bloody wanted. Landing on a jagged spur of wood that had survived the spike trap, I propelled myself upward again. At my apex, I pulled a huge slab of stone from my BP construction inventory. It had to weigh several tonnes. The block materialised beneath my feet, and I stomped down with both feet, sending it rocketing into the pyramid’s peak as I launched so high I could almost touch the stalactites.

  The slab hit like the hand of God, flattening the spikes with a deafening boom that echoed around the cavern.

  Priorita’s excited gasp. The roar of a million spectators. An alarm blaring as Ariel’s HP dropped to 5%.

  I landed atop the stone. The world still. Zephyra crested the pyramid steps. Staring. And though her eyes were alien, I saw something there—shock? Fear? Excitement?

  Didn’t matter. I sprinted for the temple, the alarm ringing in my ears.

  It stood in the centre the flat pyramid plateau, carved with obscene imagry, it was square and windowless with just a single entry. The opening seemed to suck in the light of sabre as though it were a black hole. I skidded inside, sabre raised, mental finger hovering over my constructs. A greasy weight reached for me the moment I entered, as though unseen fingers clawed through my skull and gripped the grey matter within. Notifications pinged like a pinball machine. My vision doubled, then snapped back as my Mental Resistance skill ticked another level. The invisible hand recoiled as if burned.

  In the centre of the room was an alter, pristine and clean.

  Ariel, Paddy, and Tyler stood like statues on emerald pillars along three walls, eyes closed.

  A timer flared into existence, Five minutes, collapsing all other notifications except one:

  The Soul of Tlek’Vohr (Recycled)

  Possession: 95%

  And as the seconds started to tick down, my teammates sprang from their emerald pedestals in perfect unison—weapons raised, their eyes dark and soulless.