Chapter 9: Into the Lake

Up on the circular platform, Chloe turned, scanning the area. She then aimed a kick at something that Miguel couldn’t see – Sid’s prone body, perhaps? – before coming back to the edge.

“Just making sure that my area was secure,” she called out.

With this, Chloe turned on the edge, knelt, and began to lower herself down, while Miguel removed the pole from where he had jammed it into the lake bed, and began to manoeuvred the tiny vessel closer.

The water of the underground lake was still, and it swished gently as he worked. The air around him was cool – he knew he would feel cold if he hadn’t been on the move for almost the entire time – and the wood of the pole in his hands had slightly spicy smell. As he reached the edge and stopped the vessel again, he stopped to sniff at his hands, and then shrugged.

“Whew, this is going to be cozy,” said Chloe as climbed down and nimbly stepped on board. Miguel held tight to the pole; the new body weight on the raft didn’t cause it to tip over, and it was clearly buoyant enough to carry them both.

Notification: You have gained 10XP

The vessel was now shifting in unpredictable ways, certainly, but Chloe appeared unconcerned. She had a much higher agility stat than his, Miguel was sure. She looked around at him, her dark eyes gazing directly into his. “Are you going to start poling, then, or did you decide to quit the contest.” She wrapped an arm around his waist as she spoke, her expression unreadable.

“Right. Right, yeah – I’m on it.”

With a grunt of exertion, Miguel once more pulled the vessel around, pushing off the side at first, and then poling agains the bed of the lake. Slowly, he began to propel them forward towards his original target – the space between two of the little islands.

“Was he dead?” he asked, a few moments later. “Sid, I mean.”

“Hard to say,” Chloe replied, “but I wouldn’t count on it. That one’s tough.”

“Yeah. I knew that I hadn’t killed him. With my hit, I mean. I got the same number of XP as when I shot that guy in the first trial.”

“Well, then.”

Miguel fell silent for a moment, then nodded ahead of them, scanning the surface. “I count seven others ahead of us now. The guy with the ponytail was on the lake first, and it looks like he’s getting pretty close to the gateway on the central island.”

“That is Youssef Gabriel, right?” said Chloe. “He’s a serious contender. We’d better hope that his win here doesn’t put him too far ahead in popularity.”

“You’re not doing too bad yourself, Chloe Králová,” he muttered.

“Oh... you saw. Right. Thanks! I am doing okay, but on the other hand, I did just kick the number one most popular player when he was down. I didn’t like doing it, but I couldn’t risk him getting up and putting a sword through my back.”

She sniffed. “Oh, and by the way...”

At this point, Chloe reached down and pulled something from a pouch at her belt. At first Miguel wondered if she was drawing her katana blade. But instead, she held out a trio of throwing stars, identical-looking to the ones he had had before.

“Here – take these,” she said. “I guess I owe you for the assist. Two assists, in fact.”

Miguel took a moment to put the weapons in the pouch at his belt – though perhaps he could instead have called out for them to ‘unequip’, he realized – and then returned to polling the small vessel onwards.

Notification: You have gained 5XP

“Nice. Thank you. I even got a loot bonus.”

“You’re welcome.”

“So – allies, right?”

Chloe didn’t respond to this. But as Miguel conveyed them between the two islands that formed the entranceway to the watery maze, she pointed to one side. “Look – ammo.”

Miguel glanced around and saw one of the small glowing orange cartridges, each indicating ten shots for a particular weapon.

“Are they universal?” he asked.

“Oh, yeah. It would definitely work to put bullets in a longbow.”

Miguel chuckled softly to himself – he deserved that. “Okay, then...” he said slowly. “Can you see what those ones are for?”

“Nothing that either of us is carrying, Miguel. Move along – but keep a look out.”

“Got it.”

Miguel rapidly began to perceive that the layout of the underground lake-maze was in the shape of spiral, though a very uneven one.

Soon, the pair passed another pair of the tiny islands (or perhaps they are actually called islets, he thought to himself), and it became apparent that they had been fortunate to begin near the entrance... or at least one possible entrance.

Now, though, they had to make their way almost to the other end of the lake before coming to the next gateway that would lead them onwards towards the center. Although all of the islands had other gaps between them, most were too narrow for the rafts to pass between.

“Each set of islands forms a concentric circle...” said Chloe, looking around as she spoke.

“Yes. I can see that.”

“No need to be sarcastic,” she shot back, frowning at him.

Miguel gave her a baleful look. That was rich, he thought, coming from her... but perhaps this was not the time to say so.

He pushed them on. His arms were tiring, but he wasn’t keen to ask Chloe to take a shift, not least because he doubted his ability to stay well balanced if he were not holding the pole. Besides... it was not entirely unpleasant having her arms around his waist.

“There,” called out Chloe, pointing towards another of the islands. “Crossbow bolts.”

“Cool. Thanks.”

He pushed the raft closer, and allowed it to drift closer to the islet that Chloe had pointed to.

“Wait...” she said.

“What is it?”

“I was just thinking of something. Like, maybe I could jump to there, and see you on the other side of the circle? You can bring the raft around alone. Make sense?”

“Uh... sure,” replied Miguel.

“Then let’s do it. I can go from island to island, too, and see what else I can pick up. Teamwork.”

The raft shifted alarmingly as Chloe leapt off, however. While she landed adeptly on the islet, scooping up the cartridge and then moved away, hopping to the next one along, Miguel found himself clutching at the pole to prevent himself from falling in.

As the vessel bucked under him, he planted it firmly into the lake bed and raised himself up entirely, both muscular arms straining, until the raft had settled. Then he slowly let himself back down.

Notification: You have gained 5XP

“Okay, strength stat of fourteen,” he murmured to himself as he began to propel himself forward again.

In real life he was relatively athletic – above average, probably. He was definitely more agile than his in-game avatar. Being this clumsy took some getting used to, but he was really starting to appreciate the increased strength. He would miss it when the contest was over.

He now looked around at the field. Youssef had disappeared entirely, presumably into the portal – the man had won this trial, but yet it continued.

Why?

That remained to be seen.

Four further contestants including the red-bearded Sid had now made it onto the edge of the lake behind them, and were approaching the first ring.

That final group may all finish up last equal, Miguel thought to himself, but they were still in the game, and that made them a threat. Chloe hadn’t been wrong about Sid. The man was tough and tenacious, and you couldn’t rule him out.

More problematic still, there were perhaps five or six others who were ahead of them in the concentric circles, including the gun-toting blonde, Tarja. The latter was now pretty close, rounding an islet and poling herself round into the second last loop just as Miguel approached it. She locked eyes with him, and then pulled her pistol from her hip and aimed it at him.

Bang.

Miguel had crouched down just in time, and now squatted low over on the raft, his heart thumping hard.

Equip crossbow

“Lower your weapon,” he called out loudly, crouching down and aiming the bow at Tarja. “No second warnings, or I shoot.”

In truth, holding the weapon with only one hand while on a raft was far from ideal – it was unlikely that he would hit her even if he could get a shot away.

And how many bolts did he have left? It couldn’t be more than one or two, and he hadn’t yet had a chance to get the ones that Chloe had collected.

But then, for that matter, how many shots did Tarja have left? If she was out of ammo too, then it could be a moot point.

Whether because of his threat or a lack of ammunition, Tarja did not shoot again straight away, but she kept the pistol in her hand as she poled her own raft further away, looking back warily at Miguel.

And as she went, she appeared to be entirely oblivious to Chloe, who was now standing on an islet five or six along from where she had first started.

Chloe raised her short sword.

Tarja turned, catching sight of her rival late on and raising the pistol... just as Chloe leaned forward and stabbed her katana into Tarja’s side.

Tarja gaped, and dropped to her knees, letting go of her pistol. The weapon bounced once on the edge of the raft and was headed for the water before Chloe crouched down and neatly snatched it with her off hand.

Miguel heard her say: “Unequip pistol; unequip sword,” securing both weapons in her inventory.

Chloe was poised to board Tarja’s raft, but at the last minute she stumbled. She rocked to one side to regain her footing, and then had to leap to the next island entirely in order to stop herself from falling.

The raft continued to drift away, with Tarja, wounded and still on her knees, clinging on. The woman then raised her pole once more, clutching her injured side with her teeth gritted.

She wasn’t out of the game just yet...

“That was so close,” said Miguel, eyes wide as he turned and pushed forward towards the islet where Chloe was now standing.

“I know,” she said, frowning. “I know you probably think it was a shitty move, but she wouldn’t have thought twice before doing the same to me.”

She then nodded down at the crossbow that Miguel was still holding and which was pointing in her direction, and then raised her eyebrows. “And by the way, don’t even think about it.”