Chương 75: George’s Run (X)

Entering Scenario Room Seven Objective: Defeat the Black Knight Focus Stats: Strength, Lancecraft, Equine Facility Difficulty: Hard George emerged from the portal into the trampled mud of his side of the jousting arena. The people in wooden bleachers on either side of the lists shouted and clapped when he arrived. On the other end of the muddy lane, the black knight waited, his lizard mount pawing at the earth. It reared the front half of its six-legged body into the air and let out a piercing cry.

>>"As George surveyed the task ahead of him, he felt the power of his new stats surging inside his very body. The feeble black knight and its horse-gecko were no match for the burgeoning hero Nod and his sidekick-cum-meatsack host were becoming..."

"Here's the plan," George said.

"We'll get on the horse, then I won't take the lance until I'm settled. I think that triggered the start of the joust last time. Maybe I could try to use remote manipulation on him somehow. We also could just take the lance on the force shield and hope for the best." The three young grooms waiting to help him mount the horse looked at him strangely. >>The horse? Hell, no. >>Dude. We have a hovercraft that maxes out at, like, 80 miles per hour. You aren't getting on that horse.

Just put the lance in my hand and get us there. He's going to feel like he just got hit by a truck. >>A truck with a ten-foot spike on the front.

"Oh," George said.

"Yeah, that makes sense." George drew the keychain into his palm and tossed it down in the mud. He clicked the fob and returned it to its original size. The white horse whinnied and sprang sideways when a pink-and-purple dolphin materialized next to it. The boy holding its reins was knocked into the mud. The other two grooms stared at the jet ski with open mouths. George lifted the small set of stairs he'd used to climb up on the horse last time and tossed it aside.

He slapped the horse on its hindquarters and it pulled free of the boy's grip and trotted off to the side. He swung one leg over the jet ski and activated the shield on his wrist. Writher climbed up George's back and positioned itself on his shoulder just next to his helmet. George hadn't told it to do anything and had no idea what it was planning. George stretched his free hand toward the boys holding up his lance. Nod's claws slid between the interlocking plates of his gauntlet.

Once again, the boys' mouths fell open as eight needle-like fingers grew out of George's otherwise normal hand, but they still lifted the lance and George took it from them. The lance felt right in his hand this time. Nod wrapped his extra fingers around the hilt of the lance in an iron grip. He felt his body unconsciously adjust itself to accommodate its weight. Then the trumpets blew and the black knight spurred his lizard mount toward him. George twisted the throttle on the jet ski as far as it could go.

He shot forward as though he'd been launched from a cannon. He squeezed the seat of the jet ski between his thighs and ducked behind the top edge of the shield. Nod lowered the lance with perfect control until it was parallel to the ground, the tip pointed directly at the knight's chest. Jellybean was moving incredibly fast. He could feel the wind whip by his body, and he crouched lower, pressing himself against the jet ski. Nod lifted the lance above his body like a scorpion's tail poised to strike.

The knight was 40 feet away, then 20, then only ten in a blink. A second before they clashed, George felt Writher leap into the air from its perch on his shoulder, but he didn't have time to see where it landed. Then, they hit. Nod guided the tip of their lance into the center of the knight's chest armor and the instant it touched the knight, the whole lance exploded in splinters of wood. George only had an instant to see that the knight was thrown from his mount before he sped by.

The knight's lance had entirely missed him, passing directly over his head. When they'd hit, Jellybean strafed to the side, but George held it slowed and brought it back around. The crowd had been cheering loudly moments before but now they'd fallen entirely silent. George turned the jet ski and drove it back toward the spot where the knight had fallen. The lizard mount had run to the corner of the area. The black knight was rolling around on his back in the mud with both hands grasping at his own neck.

George steered the jet ski even closer and dismounted. The knight had rolled over and pushed himself to his knees but was bent double with his helmeted head in the mud. George could hear gasping sounds echoing inside the helmet and could see blood on his gauntlets. Then he fell still and tipped sideways into the mud. The knight kept punching the armor around his own neck with his spiked gauntlets. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. >>What just happened?

>>Allow me to take a moment to recant of my previous resistance to adding the nodling to the weaponwright's magic bag. >>That may have been your first good decision since, well… ever. As George watched, the knight collapsed into the mud and went still. Writher crawled out of the inside of the knight's helmet and unwound its coils from his neck.

George lifted his hand toward the former-nodling and it leapt onto his forearm and swung itself onto his back, its eight arms grasping his shoulders and torso comfortably like a backpack. Someone in the crowd screamed. The moment the knight had stopped moving, a portal had opened on the far side of the arena. George mounted the jet ski again and hovered over to the portal in front of a silent crowd. He could see a scene of chaos through the portal.

Through the portal, George had a high vantage point on a hill overlooking a violent conflict in the valley below. On the far end of the valley, warriors in futuristic armor marched forward in lockstep. Orange streaks of laser fire blasted out in harsh lines that left afterimages in George's vision. He was too far away to differentiate individual infantry on the front lines, but he could see large mechs lumbering forward just behind the front line.

Each one had two legs, stubby arms loaded with rockets, and stood tall above the fray. As George watched, one of the mechs fired a string of missiles down the valley and they exploded in a cloud of fire in the enemy ranks, sending bodies flying in all directions. The nearer end of the valley was occupied by a motley army of fantastical creatures. There were unorganized pockets of goblins massing throughout the battlefront.

Some seemed to be running away, while others surged toward the enemy brandishing swords and clubs. There were also larger creatures—club-wielding ogres, grotesque wolves, and shambling bodies mostly stripped of flesh. George could see a line of wooden catapults along the opposite slope periodically launching flaming debris at the oncoming army. The mechs were matched by building-sized giants striding up the valley and squashing goblins underfoot.

One of them was even dragging an uprooted tree behind itself, presumably to use as a club. >>It's sci-fi vs fantasy down there. >>Those goblins are about the get their asses handed to them. This will be fun to watch. George stepped away from the portal and said, "What are we supposed to do in the middle of a battle?" >>Let's go find out. >>What is the worst that could happen? You die… so what. Been there, done that. George shook his head and stepped through the portal.

Entering Scenario Room Eight Objective: Reach your potential self Focus Stats: Command, Agility, Proprioception Difficulty: Hard The moment he stepped through, the mech army sent another volley of rockets streaking down the valley. One exploded disturbingly close to George and sent debris raining down around him. He wasn't in the middle of the goblin army, but he wasn't clear of the outriders on the flanks of the force of creatures, either.

George activated his shield and looked all around for a place to hide, but the hillside was completely exposed and barren. He rushed toward the smoking crater left by the barrage of rockets and dived into it. He crawled to the lip of the crater and poked his head over the edge to watch the battle. Several ogres were dragging a large wooden structure through the ranks of the fantasy creatures.

Flashes of light came from the top of the structure, growing brighter before concentrating into a brilliant purple beam that shot forward into the ranks of the mech army, strafing back and forth before it disappeared, leaving carnage in its wake. A victorious shout rose from the fantasy army, but their celebration didn't last long as a storm of tracer bullets and laser beams from the mech army flashed into their front ranks. Then the mech army unleashed a new weapon.

Some invisible force crashed into the fantasy army like a scythe into wheat. The bodies of monsters flew into the air as the invisible threat mowed through the front line and penetrated deep into the monster ranks. The mech army ceased its fire. The monster army rallied and charged toward the path of destruction being cut into it. The magical tower charged up its attack again. Suddenly, a dome shield flashed to life in the midst of the dead bodies of monsters.

The tower blasted its purple beam at the shield and was entirely negated. The shield flashed away and in the second before the battle resumed again, George caught a glimpse of a single figure standing still in the middle of the shielded area. The invisible weapon wasn't a weapon at all. It was a man—a man with two heads. The figure was sealed in black armor, four arms jutting from his torso, each gripping a different weapon. Each of its two heads were encased in a black helmet with red lights for eyes.

Mechanical spider-limbs unfolded from his back, flexing and twitching with a life of their own. He raised one hand, and a dark haze poured from his palm, curling upward before spreading around him. With a gesture, the haze surged outward, and George realized it wasn't smoke; it was a swarm. The swarm swept into the enemy ranks. Soldiers broke formation as dark creatures materialized out of the cloud and latched onto them, dissolving armor and flesh.

Panic rippled through the army, what order there was collapsing wherever the black tide spread. Then the armored man vanished again. The rout spread fast, the monster army unraveling even as the mech battalions stood firm, holding their lines and letting their champion wage single combat with the entire army. >>Uh-oh. Enemies approaching on Nod-radar… fast! George heard the sound of shouting coming nearer to him. He raised his head a bit higher over the lip of the crater.

The broken horde was already stampeding up the slope, goblins scrambling over each other in blind panic. They slammed into him, bodies and claws knocking him off balance, and then an ogre burst through the crush. Its club caught him square in the chest as it ran into him, sending him sprawling, and the creature toppled down on top of him. His shield flared once, groaning under the weight, before the ogre bellowed and pushed itself up, lumbering away into the mob.

George dragged himself upright, gasping, and fumbled for the dolphin fob. The horde jostled him, pressing around him, and the small keychain slipped from his fingers—vanishing beneath the stampeding tide of bodies. He staggered forward, trying to find a clear space, when an thunderous sound erupted behind him. The earth shook with the rhythm of running steps. George turned just in time to see a giant's vast foot sweeping through the mass of fleeing goblins.

The last thing he saw was its sole of its foot rising above him before the world went black. You have died. Continue? Cost: 20 tokens (34 remaining)