Chapter 6: The Third Centipede

Miguel and Chloe continued towards the center of the arena, weapons still at the ready.

As he walked, Miguel looked again towards the second monstrous centipede in the distance. “We’d better keep clear of that, one,” he said, frowning and pointing ahead.

“Why?” asked Chloe, frowning. “We’ve shown that we can work together to kill them.” She was looking a lot more relaxed than she had back at the cave, and Miguel had to remind himself that she had been moments from being crushed beneath the centipede when it had slid down over her spear.

“To an extent, yeah,” he said, nodding. “But we did get a bit lucky," he said. “Very lucky. And besides – I’m almost out of shots.”

She peered at him for a moment, narrowing her eyes. “D’you find math difficult? You have three left, which is enough to hit its eyes, just the same strategy, as before. And by the way, why didn’t you tell me that you could shoot with that kind of accuracy?”

He glanced down at the crossbow, patted it, and then disarmed it such that it returned to its place slung over his shoulder. “I didn't know, to be honest. My missile weapons stat is one of my best, certainly. And I don’t know if it helps, but I spent most of my childhood playing shooting games. I was the local champion in Neighborhood 65F. Small beans, but it might have helped a bit.”

She scoffed, shaking her head a fraction. “You should’ve led with that when we first met. At least your better looking than the thief.”

The pit was still a distance ahead; they had passed the chewed-up body of the dead middle-aged woman, and further slain contenders lay off to their right. “This way,” said Chloe, without hesitating. “We need to loot those bodies too.”

This time Miguel simply nodded, and the pair ran over. No sentimentality – they would need everything they could get to pass the coming challenges. All the same, he paused when he recognized the first of the bodies as the ratty-faced thief they had encountered before.

“Well, this guy was an asshole,” he said, looking down at the corpse.

Chloe shrugged. “He was just trying to win.” She stopped and began to strip the man’s belongings, while Miguel got to work on the next body around ten yards further on.

There had been a battle here, clearly, and there were trails of purple ichor which circled the victims and then led away towards the center. The giant centipede that had killed these contenders had survived to fight on, he supposed.

The victim that he had looted had possessed a shield, a dagger, and a small set of spiked throwing stars, all of which Miguel gathered up. As he stood, he saw another notification for 5 XP – the standard reward for looting, perhaps?

Notification: You have gained 5 XP

His inventory now contained the following:

Belt pouch (large) Crossbow Dagger Helmet Iron chestplate Hoplon shield Throwing stars (3)

The shield was round, with strange ring-like indentations in it, but it looked sturdy enough – it would help when he needed to fight hand-to-hand.

Miguel now heard a distant roaring, and glanced up. The third centipede – and, he had to suppose, the last – was now coming towards them, showing its characteristic speed across the ground when moving in a straight line. This time, however, several other contenders – at least ten, by Miguel’s reckoning – were streaming towards it from all sides.

“Come on,” said Chloe calmly, starting to sprint directly towards the monster just as it sped towards them. “Let’s finish this bastard now, and worry about the other players after.”

Once again she was quicker off the mark, but again Miguel sprinted faster across the ground and was soon at her shoulder. Not wanting to use up his three remaining bolts, he equipped his throwing stars – on saying the command, one appeared in his right hand – and he then equipped the shield in his left.

Chloe was just behind him now; he glanced over his shoulder just in time to see her stop and hurl her spear like a javelin. It flew through the air in a perfect arc, but dipped just as it reached the beast’s head, hitting it harmlessly with the flat of the shaft and falling clear. She ran to retrieve it.

Miguel threw the first of the throwing stars, and it embedded into the creature’s face just above one of its eyes; another star came to his hand without needing a command.

He backed off a little, just as a scythe-like leg flailed out towards him, scraping across the shield and sending him stumbling backwards. The pit was close by, just ten yards to his right. He would have to be careful.

Having retrieved her spear, Chloe had now moved closer to him again. To their right, a huge red-haired warrior with a two-handed axe landed a mighty blow upon the monster’s head, and was then knocked back by more of its slashing legs.

But the man rose, ready for another try.

Further up, all along the length of the beast, more warriors were hacking at it with swords, spears and axes, dodging its legs and writhing body as they did so. Among them was the murderous bald man with the goatee who they had seen earlier.

Miguel saw others with bows, too, and even a young blonde woman with a pistol held in both hands, and a bandolier of knives that ran from her shoulder down to her hip.

The tail of the beast was now looping around to his right as it curved around the pit, and Miguel noticed for the first time that the tail had two huge pincers on it, wider than the span of his own arms.

As he watched, a very muscular contender with a spiked ball and chain thumped the weapon down on the monster’s tail, only for the pincers to catch him by the leg and fling him into the pit. Miguel watched the man fall screaming, but only for a moment.

Almost immediately, his attention was back on the battle.

The red-haired axeman was having another hit, and the mighty axe dug deeply into the beast’s face this time. At the same moment, Chloe’s spear flew past him and directly into one of the glowing green eyes. Miguel flung his next throwing star, watching as it flew straight and true into another of the eyes.

It was a fine hit.

The third throwing star was now in his hand, and straight away he threw it, hoping to follow up on his previous success. But as it did so, the surroundings began to shimmer and fade, and he found himself back in the large square room by the benches. There were no bodies by his feet, and Chloe had shifted too – he looked across, and she was back by her bench.

The throwing star which he had just flung appeared a few yards in front of him and then fell vertically to the ground with a clatter. Miguel hurried forward, and stooped to pick it up, seeing a notification as he did so:

Notification: You have gained 70 XP

Less this time. Was that due to the greater number of players who shared in the kill? And did the game figure out who deserved a larger share?

He had no idea.

A voice then ran out: “Contenders. The first trial is now complete. Congratulations on surviving this far. Out of eighty-eight contenders who began, twenty-six survive. The second trial begins very soon.”

There was a pause. Miguel looked to his left, and saw that the red-haired warrior was now sitting on a bench to the left, just a few away from his own. The man still had the huge battle axe clutched in both hands, and Miguel now noticed a short sword sheathed at his belt.

The man’s face and shoulders were deeply scarred, with several bleeding open wounds visible, and blood could be seen caking in his long red beard. But what was more noticeable was that his arms – and the battle axe itself – were covered with the purple ichor of the giant centipede. Had he made the killing blow on the third beast, or the second?

He certainly had the look of someone who had faced up to a monster with a hand-held weapon, and won.

So – another demon slayer. A real contender.

Miguel glanced around at the others in the room. A little over a quarter of the benches were occupied, which fit with the numbers that the guide had announced.

With a nod to Chloe, Miguel stepped back towards his own bench, and found that there were several of the rolled-up white towels upon on it, as well as a large pitcher of water and a small glass vial with a fizzing dark red liquid inside.

It was roughly the color of blood.

Just at that moment, the voice spoke again: “If you turn to your benches, you will find a potion which can be used to heal any damage that you have sustained. If you are uninjured, you may add this to your inventory. The water can be used to wash or to drink, although you should be assured that your physiological needs are being taken care of by your service android, and need not concern you.

By the android, thought Miguel. Did he trust that thing?

Well – he had no choice now, it appeared.

Unequip throwing star

Unequip shield

Miguel carefully tucked the vial of healing liquid into his belt pouch, and then poured around half of the pitcher of water over his head, shaking his head and shoulders to drip dry, and then using one of the towels to finish the job. It was certainly refreshing. He then took a sip from the jug, and then a few more gulps. It was weird – he knew that his present form was an avatar, but he nevertheless felt a strong psychological compulsion to drink.

“Sixty seconds remain,” said the voice of the guide. “If you now look towards the central area, you will see a leaderboard showing contestant rankings. These are derived from audience attention and donations, as well of the choice of streams selected from among the multiple channels provided by our virtual drones. Additional experience points will be awarded in reverse order of this ranking.”

Miguel frowned as he looked over in that direction. A popularity contest, then? He might have assumed that the XP scores were factored into their rankings. Instead, it sounded like the reverse was true.

His eyes scanned down the list towards his own name – sadly, it was not especially near the top.

17 – Miguel Rubio

Just after making this observation, he saw:

Notification: You have gained 10XP

Well, he was tenth from the end, so perhaps that made sense. He glanced back to the top, only to realize on a second viewing that Chloe’s name was fourth top. That would mean 23XP for her, or did the points scale in a different way?

There were images beside the names, too, and although the remaining contender names were unfamiliar to him, he recognized the red-bearded warrior who appeared at the top. The pistol-toting blonde woman was second, and Miguel wondered if she had played a major role in slaying the second centipede.

1 – Sid Geraghty 2 – Tarja Tuomi 3 – Youssef Gabriel 4 – Chloe Králová

The rest of the names meant nothing to him, but there were, as the guide had said, twenty-six overall.

He glanced over at Chloe again, then noticed that she was drying the area inside of her armor, pulling it away from her body in the process, and so he averted his eyes. He then laughed gently at himself. It’s an avatar, he thought, not a real person. Besides, she’s only a temporary ally, not a friend and definitely not a love interest.

Still.

In as far as any members of the publikum were rooting for him, it wasn’t going to be helped by him creepily ogling the other contenders.

“In a moment you will see a countdown begin,” said the guide’s voice once again. “The coming challenge will test your strength, speed and agility. Instead of remaining in one large area, you must get to the end, dealing with hazards along the way.”

“Come on Miguel,” he said to himself, rubbing his hands and focusing. “You’ve got this.”

Equip dagger

At the latter command, the dagger came to his hand.

He looked across to Chloe, and saw that she had her katana at the ready; the spear was now strapped across her back, alongside the backpack that they had salvaged. He caught her eye, and she nodded slowly, a determined look across her face.

“You’d better be ready to run, contenders,” said the voice. “For this challenge draws on speed, agility and strategy more than weapon skills. Good luck.”