First Game 2: Winnowing

K’mels let out a snarling cry as he cleaved through another of the hounds, his blade cutting through its neck. That had been the fifth monster roaming the maze they had encountered and with each one dealt with, his irritation grew.

‘Hardly even a challenge,’ he ruefully thought as he rolled his shoulder to ease the slight strain it had begun to develop. In one respect, he expected them to be easy to kill. Tsxhel’s shamistic magic worked well against them since her focus was so heavily tied to a nature goddess. She couldn’t weaken them exactly, but she said the glow coming off her staff left them lethargic and easy targets.

On the other hand, he had hoped for something to test his skill. Striking down sluggish plant golems was hardly a way to erase the stain of his earlier failures, or to burn off the irritation he felt towards pretty much everything. The running, the deaths, the handouts.

Worse was he couldn’t just command Tsxhel to cease her spell. With unknown trials ahead of them, it would be foolish to give up an advantage that left him in good fighting condition. So, caught within that quandary, he could only scowl and press onwards.

‘Maybe I can get ahead of Tsxhel long enough to reach one of these hounds before her spell weakens them,’ he thought. ‘Just a little bit to get the blood pumping.’

With that notion stuck in his head, K’mels hurried down the maze, ignoring the call from Tsxhel to slow down.

“Donnelly, riposte!” Ramirez shouted as one of the faux hounds attacking them bounded for her. Her squire pivoted, the movement still lacking in the seamlessness born of perfected practice, but nevertheless was adequate to get her into position to intercept the attack.

Donnelly’s sword swung into the hound’s flank, cutting into it and forcing it back. As her squire dealt with one, Ramirez focused her attention on the other.

‘Being made of straw limits the output of what I can do,’ she calmly thought, not all that irritated by the handicap she was saddled with. There was always the risk that one’s talents would be an ill fit against certain enemies or in particular environments. Today, she was met with both. It would be highly irresponsible to set fire to the maze. A blade that draws blood without reason and without restraint was not the sort of weapon she wielded or the Order tolerated.

With outward expression of her magic ill-advised, she turned it inward. The lightning she would employ to arc off her blade now ran through her body, the muscles tensing with greater potential, like a spring compressed. She released the compressed power, her body blurring as enhanced movement let her thrust with her thin sword in rapid succession, her arm pulsing with flickering blue light.

The quick strikes landed true, piercing numerous holes into the hound. The attacks did little to dissuade the monster, the frayed bits of straw rearing up like serpents from the wounds to counterattack. With lightning born speed, Ramirez sprang back, her gaze shifting to Donnelly for a second.

‘She’s holding herself well,’ she thought as she rendered a quick assessment. ‘Could do with a little more refinement on her defensive style, but it’s serviceable.’

She observed her charge deliver a hearty strike to her opponent’s flank, cutting away enough of the straw to reveal its wooden skeleton, complete with a weaved facsimile of a ribcage.

‘If that’s not the house for its core, I don’t deserve my armor,’ Ramirez remarked. ‘One good strike should be enough to disable it.’

With a rush of speed, she reengaged her opponent, peppering it with quick, shallow strikes, designed to goad the thing into more aggressive action. It may hold little care to its overall health, but attacking was what it was clearly meant for and would do so before it was rendered inert.

Her needling drew out the desired reaction and the hound tried to leap onto her, its maw and every puncture opening wide to bite her with sharpened straw. With a flash of motion, Ramirez struck, blade driving into the hound’s center. The well made Order steel didn’t falter as it pierced wood and whatever the core was composed of and passed through the back of the golem.

The straw tendrils fell limp and the beast dissolved away a second later and Ramirez took note that nothing remained, a point contrary to the report the Warden gave about Newman’s ability.

‘Did we just get unlucky or has something changed?’ she mused as she turned her attention to Donnelly as she managed to **** her opponent down, the blow causing it to bend unnaturally before it too vanished, leaving nothing behind.

“Adequately done, Donnelly,” Ramirez said as her squire snapped to attention. “I do see that these things haven’t produced anything, contrary to what you and the Warden saw before. Do you have any insights?”

“Newman did mention ‘settings’ that his barriers abide by, Ma’am,” Donnelly replied tersely. “And he was shocked by the layout of the one he took the Warden and myself to.”

Ramirez hummed as she digested that information, walking slowly over to the conspicuously placed bushel of apples, a prize guarded by the two hounds that had attacked them the moment they had turned the corner. At the barest touch of her fingers, the wicker basket vanished, leaving Ramirez blinking with her hand extended.

“Perhaps, given the mobile nature of this event, anything obtained is spirited away,” she said. “Or not even really here, only something for us to lay claim to and for the organizer to tally.”

Whatever the case was, it wasn’t worth lingering to ponder it. Ramirez took a second to reach out with her senses, trying to gauge where the other four competitors were, along with any further golems or other enemies. Unfortunately, the corn stalks that comprised the maze buzzed with their own presence and made detecting anything more than a few meters away difficult. And anything further away was impossible to sense, lost to the white noise.

Shaking her head, Ramirez turned her gaze to her squire, who quickly snapped to attention.

“Keep an eye on our rear,” she ordered as she turned to proceed down the pathway. “I’d rather not get caught unawares by any opportunistic enemy.”

“Aye, Ma’am,” Donnelly said as she saluted before falling in line a few steps behind her, her body turned slightly to maintain line of sight down where they had already tread.

‘You know, it’s been rather quiet in this maze,’ Senka noted as John touched a bag of birdseed that had been defended by a now deceased Straw Hound. They had been making their way through the maze for about a half hour, coming across more than a dozen caches of crops and other farm related paraphernalia along with a few roaming golems.

‘Yeah, now that you mentioned it, I would have thought we’d hear the other’s fighting,’ John remarked, looking around at the walls of the maze. ‘Think these are enchanted to diminish sounds?’

‘Possible,’ Senka thought. ‘Or we’ve drifted further apart than we’ve realized.’

“Senka have something to say?” Vivian asked.

“She finds it odd that we haven’t heard anything from the other teams,” John relayed. “We’re either much more separated than we think or the maze is eating the noise we make.”

Vivian frowned as they began to continue deeper into the maze. “Both are a possibility. I know we haven’t tested it, but I’d imagine the walls have a substantial thickness to them. But that wouldn't negate all the sound since there’s no roof so some would carry over. So, I think it’s more likely that we’ve gone a good distance away from everyone. We did all start a fair bit from each other.”

“Suppose that’s true,” John said. “And if I was making a maze with multiple entrances, I’d make the first paths all go in different directions. Hell, they might not cross until we get close to the end.”

“If that’s the case, then I think that’s where the boss would be,” Vivian surmised before a frown crossed her face. “I’m not sure which would be better: us reaching that point first and having to deal with the boss alone, or coming in later as reinforcements.”

“Hopefully, we can just rush past it,” John said, the words feeling sour on his tongue. Skipping a boss felt a bit wrong. The loot and experience were a valuable commodity and leaving them was not something John wanted to do, but between the chance of encountering it by themselves and the other teams electing to not fight it, there wasn’t a great chance they could beat it. Plus, given the three other trials ahead of them, getting drained in a futile fight wasn’t a smart move.

The rustling of the corn to their left was the only warning they had before a large scythe came bursting out. John threw himself to the ground, an arm pulling Vivian down with him as the blade swished through the air above them.

“Run!” John shouted as he pulled Vivian up before whatever was attacking them could take a second swing. The pair moved as fast as they could as something crashed into the path behind them. John risked a glance back to see what was their assailant.

“Fuck, it’s the boss,” he breathlessly cursed as the scarecrow righted itself on limbs that were bent at impossible angles, looking more like an insect than a person. Bits of straw stuck out from the seams on its burlap body and its head twisted around so it could see them. Then it began its pursuit, skirtering after them on three limbs, the fourth holding aloft its scythe, primed to attack them. And that weapon, combined with its long limbs, would ensure that was likely to happen sooner rather than later.

They ran down the straight passage, John thinking that the ambush had happened in an opportune spot as nothing impeded it from running them down, like a corner. Worse than that, to John, was that it clearly wasn’t moving as fast as it could, though its gait was increasing. Soon it would be in range.

With options low, John was ready to throw caution to the wind and fire off a Fiery Pursuit. The risk of burning down the maze paled when compared to getting torn in two by the scythe. Before he could, Vivian threw a sheet of paper over her shoulder. A second later, it exploded in a shockwave of pure ****, the paper shredded to pieces and the blast wave slamming into the boss.

8 DMG

It was a paltry amount of damage but it did its job. The scarecrow’s pace was disrupted and it tumbled into the wall, partially disappearing into the corn.

“I’ve got a few more of the concussive arrays set up,” Vivian announced through slightly labored breathing. “Kind of wished they did a bit more damage.”

“I can hit them with Amplify if we need a bigger hit,” John said. “And I’m going to Overlay with wind. Wind Shot can help too.”

John felt the spirit meld with him, the feel of his mana shifting and filling his body with the desire to keep moving. Something he was very ready to give into. John spun on his heel, coming face to face with the skittering scarecrow and let off his elemental attack.

21 DMG

The blast of compressed air launched from John’s hand and smashed into the boss’ head, causing it to stumble.

“Damn, this thing’s sturdy,” John spat as he got back to the retreat.

“Still did close to three times the amount of damage I did,” Vivian groused, her breathing growing heavier.

“I think you slowed it down more,” John said, trying to soothe her bruised ego. “I don’t think we can dish out the damage needed to beat this thing without resorting to fire, which we’ve established would be a gamble.”

“Then if it catches up, we try the Amplify plan,” Vivian breathed out. “And when we get out of this whole event, I think I need to take up jogging.”

“Not sure if it’ll help me any, but I’ll join you,” John remarked. “Maybe we make it a whole group thing. Jog around the world tree clearing.”

“At least that way we won’t have to worry about cars,” Vivian jokingly said.

The erratic thumps of the scarecrow’s limbs were gaining on them. The boss was clearly done with the cat and mouse approach and was actively trying to reach them. John’s eyes met Vivian’s and the pair nodded. Vivian retrieved a concussive array and tossed it back. John twisted as he kept pace, feeling for the moment the array went off to cast Amplify, his arm outstretched.

The array triggered and John let Amplify enhance the blast. Unlike the first array, this one roared like a bomb, the shockwave tinged green and larger than before. It slammed into the boss like a tidal wave, knocking it over in a pile of limbs, its scythe cutting a large swath of corn as it tumbled back.

23 DMG

“That’s what I’m talking about,” John cheered, grinning as he looked over at Vivian, who matched his expression.

“I just had an idea,” she wheezed out through labored breaths. “We might be able to make a better design for that array if the plan is to combo off each other. Trade the outward **** for better capacity. Without Amplify it would generate a longer but weaker pulse, but with…”

“Would make something like a wind tunnel, right?” John finished for her.

“Exactly!” Vivian said. “We’d have to dial in the right variables and…”

Whatever else she was about to explain about her ideas was left unsaid as a sickening crack reverberated through the air. Glancing back, the pair’s faces twisted in shock as the boss was racing towards them, its body contorted into a more quadrupedal form, moving in an undulating fashion, its scythe swinging in front of it in a wild and erratic pattern.

Ahead of them, the path opened up into a wider area and John asked, as quietly as he could, “Do we just keep going in a straight line or try some evasive maneuvers?”

“I don’t think we can keep outrunning it,” Vivian answered, looking back towards the increasingly close scarecrow.

John nodded, resolution settling around him. “Go as fast as you can and turn right. If it follows you, I’m going to go all out. Maybe draw it towards the center to limit the environmental damage.”

Vivian grimly nodded and the pair pushed themselves as fast as they could, John now outpacing the redhead. They crossed the threshold into the clearing, a large rectangular space with a few pathways along each wall. John kept running forward while Vivian dashed to the right along the clearing’s wall.

John spun on his heel when he presumed the boss would cross into the area, overestimating its pace by about a second. It was in the moment that his eyes drifted to one of the other passageways that he saw Ramirez and Rowan swiftly approaching the clearing.

‘Okay, maybe we can tackle this thing,’ John thought with renewed hope. ‘Or at the very least we can hobble it and make a break for it.’

The scarecrow barreled into the clearing a second before the Order members did, both women quickly shifting into battle stances as they surveyed the scene. John tensed, ready to fire off a Wind Shot and jump to the side to create some distance while it recovered from the blow.

However, the boss didn’t continue its pursuit of him, nor did it change its target to Vivian, Rowan or Ramirez. Instead, its chaotic gait shifted towards one of the openings in the walls and rushed towards it with haste.

It reached a point about ten meters before the path and untwisted itself back into a humanoid shape, its scythe held in both hands. At that moment, John knew that was the path that would lead them out.

He also knew that getting down it wasn’t going to be easy.

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