“Project, Butt Head!” she yelled, annoying Sam with the way she changed his name in her contacts list.
“Lighten up, jerk. You know I’m just kidding. What’s wrong with you anyway?” she asked sitting up and pushing the hair from her face.
“I don’t want to talk about it, to be honest,” he said after a long sigh.
“You don’t have to. I can hear it in your voice. It’s Michelle again, isn’t it?”
“I told you I don’t want to talk about it.”
She persisted.
“We both know that Michelle isn’t worth your time anyway. She’s more confused than girls I go to school with and she’s had eleven more years than us to figure this out.”
He wondered if she already knew about the breakup, but figured it wasn’t possible.
“Figure what out?” he asked giving her a suspicious stare.
“That girl’s just confused about life in general. She needs help with it all,” she said, stretching. She then got up and started walking. Sam was annoyed when he saw her choice for an outfit. Her dress was way too short.
“You only met her that one time. How do you know what she’s confused about? And how did you convince Mom to let you out of the house like that.”
“She came to my dance program with Mom that time you didn’t show up. Me and Mom talked to her after and I could tell then that she was a ditz. And I’m inside the house, genius! I can wear what I want.”
She always had a way of making him feel guilty without even trying.
“I apologized for not showing up for that,” he said looking at the floor.
“I’m not accusing you of anything, jeez! But anyway, she doesn’t know what she wants. I hope you figured that out by now,” she said, sitting her phone on a table and grabbing something from the fridge.
“I’m a scatterbrain, not an idiot, Ru, and I don’t need any dating advice from my sixteen year old sister. So let’s stop talking about Michelle. I’m trying to forget her.”
“Good.”
There was a brief silence on the line. Sam hadn’t expected such a brief response from his sister.
“So why’d you call me?”
“Dad’s birthday is coming up.”
“And?”
She stopped what she was doing and looked right at him, furious.
“And stop being a dick. Mom wants you home, asshole.”
Sam could only blame himself the vulgar part of his sister’s vocabulary, so he was never hypocritical about it.
“I don’t know why. It’s been five years. I can remember Dad and pay tribute to him in my own way and she can too. We don’t always have to eat together. It’s so inconvenient to have to drive all the way home like that, especially when I have other gigs I have to work.”
Rui huffed and slapped her forehead.
“Why do you have to be that way? You know she just wants to see you and to have us both around. It’s special to her.”
“Then she needs to get off my back. She’s been worse about nagging me since Dad’s been gone. I just don’t want to hear it, Ru. I get enough of that crap from Michelle and even you.”
She sat down and finally annoyed with it, gathered her long hair into a ponytail.
“Hey, don’t lump me in with Michelle! While I think you have some really childish hobbies, at least I can see that you’re trying to make a living from your gaming. And all Mom wants is for you to be safe and stable. She doesn’t want to have to worry about you being homeless out in LA or something. And Michelle’s just an idiot, so her concerns don’t matter.”
She was right. Rui always had a good head on her shoulders. She could see the bigger picture, unlike most people. There were some days where Sam was forced to wonder if the girl had more sense than him despite being almost half his age.
“I know. I just don’t want to hear it, Ru. I don’t need her nitpicking every little thing.”
“Stop whining! It’s just one day and you can go back to doing whatever you do right after and continue ignoring us.”
“I do not ignore you!”
She gave him an exaggerated wide-eyed look as if he’d said something crazy.
“Pfffft! I was starting to wonder if I even had an older brother.”
That dig really cut at Sam, despite his sister’s facetiousness. He wasn’t around his family as much as he should be and he knew it.
“Okay, enough with the guilt trip! I’ll come. Tell Mom I’ll be there. I made sure to take that day off next week, but I’ll be busy for the rest of this week and for the days before and after Dad’s birthday,” he said, staring at the ground in defeat.
Sam wasn’t looking, but he could hear Rui’s victorious giggling on the other end of the line. It made him smile despite the fact that she had him wrapped around her little finger.
“You should feel guilty. It’s your own fault anyway. You can make it up to me by giving me some brotherly advice about boys.”
Oh no.
Sam plotted the ways to get off the phone.
“I’ve been dating this airhead named Kyle, who’s a gamer like you. Is that something all you gamers have in common, lack of common sense? Anyway, Kyle’s cute, but he lives in his own world.”
“Aren’t you too young to be dating anyway?” Sam interrupted.
“I’m sixteen, not twelve. And please don’t interrupt unless you have some good advice for me.”
“You only need to know one thing Ru. Boys are pigs. Just keep your nose in the books.”
6 An Unreal Fight
Back in the game world ...
Sam shivered. He was now face to face with the strange plant creature, Hardass and could see that it didn’t have a real face, only hollowed out cavities for its fake eyes and mouth like a puppet. Normally Sam found stuff like that sickeningly cool, but right now his body was racked with pain and his health bar was steadily draining. Now, he was under twenty percent, dangerous territory since each of Hardass’ previous attacks had taken more than a third of his health.
Hardass stood in place and started shaking spastically, so Sam ran. He put as much distance as he could between himself and the plant creature. Unfortunately Hardass was quick despite looking like he was made out of wood. It remained only a few paces behind him. Sam ran for a while, but saw that not only was his green stamina bar nearly depleted, but so was his health bar. He had no choice, but to stop and grab the Soul Fire from his hip and take a swig from it. His health shot up nearly to maximum along with his stamina. The only problem was his health bar remained deep purple with the red POISONED message above it, and of course his health was still draining. Hardass launched another attack from behind and Sam just barely dodged it with a side roll.
“Crap, I’m really starting to feel sick.”
He didn’t know if it was because of the poison or the rolling. He didn’t like how realistic this game felt. Why would anyone want to feel pain like this, he wondered. He approached Hardass again to attack, but noticed that it was already moving towards him. It had good recovery (freedom to move) after most of its attacks. The only one that left any sort of opening was the spinning attack, but Sam’s weapon was too short to take advantage of it.
Maybe that long range piercing thing it did on me has a long recovery too. With it being a straightforward linear attack, I should be able to avoid it and counterattack easily enough.
That was easier said than done. Sam was still sure he wouldn’t have enough time to backstab the creature again. He blamed his lack of offensive options on his starting weapon. The Dagger had no reach at all and now Sam saw that it did no real damage with normal slices and stabs. All its power seemed to come from critical strikes. That last backstab had netted him about ten times normal damage since Hardass was currently near half health. His other two strikes hadn’t even done a decent fraction of damage to the creature.
“There’s only one way. I have to do it!”
He ran straight at Hardass and dodged to the side. His roll took him much further than he
expected, but Hardass was already protecting its back by moving away from Sam. It was quick and smart enough to know not to expose its weakness a second time. Sam slashed at its side for a small pittance. It attacked and Sam rolled again to the same side and struck it again. Hardass’ back was again close, but just out of range. Sensing danger, Hardass prepared its spinning attack again and Sam was forced to roll twice to the left to get out of its range. The attack took as much recovery time as Sam had predicted and he was also right about not being able to close the gap between himself and its back. He couldn’t even get a good slash in before it was ready to attack again. All that and Sam’s health was already down to seventy-five percent again thanks to the poisoning.
He then stood at mid-range and waited for the creature to attack again. It went with the long piercing attack. Mid-range was definitely too far, so Sam closed in the gap and instead of attacking, he stopped and waited for Hardass to attack. Hardass lifted its right hand and struck down at Sam with its most straightforward attack so far. Sam used his Deflector and pushed its whip-like arms and razor claws towards the sky. Hardass staggered backwards a little, leaving its pulsating heart exposed. Sam took one step forward and thrust his blade into the dark blue heart. A drum beat echoed in his ear along with the sound of a knife slicing through flesh, sounds of a successful parry and opening blow. Hardass wilted down; its wood splintered and cracked as Sam kicked it from his knife. Some strange glow from its body had enveloped Sam in a ghostly white mist. Sam’s soul count popped up in the lower right corner and he saw it increase from zero to four hundred.
Hardass’ corpse remained on the ground but seemed to be quickly decomposing into mulch. The poison it had laid on Sam was still draining his health. He was currently at less than fifty percent.
He now noticed a smaller purple bar under his health bar that seemed to be ticking down. He guessed that it was the duration of the poison effect. He only had to endure for a bit longer to be rid of it. He waited in place while the little bar had completely run out. By the time it did, he was left with less than ten percent of his health, but more importantly he was free of the poison. He took another swig from his Soul Fire which restored his health close enough to full. He was left with only three more drinks before the container was empty.
He took a deep breath then brought forth his menu and checked over his equipment, mainly his Dagger. He was right about it only scoring its main damage from critical hits. It was an assassin’s weapon after all.
Dagger
Knife
A small blade, typically reserved as a last resort on the battlefield. For most, it is a useless weapon, but a few know human vital points quite well and look for the perfect moment to strike.
ATK (total attack power) 37
Weapon Damage 10
S ATK (strength attack power) F = 0
D ATK (dexterity attack power) B = 27
M ATK (magic attack power) F = 0
B ATK (belief attack power) F = 0
F RAT (fire rating) 0
L RAT (lightning rating) 0
D RAT (dust rating) 0
P RAT (poison rating) 0
B RAT (bleedout rating) 10
Weight: 1 lb
S ABS: 200
“There’s no way I’ll be able to fight a boss like this. I need a better weapon.”
He closed his menu and noticed the shredded remains of Hardass were in three separate piles. They hadn’t fallen like that, so Sam wondered what the heck was going on.
Is it still alive?
He wasn’t too concerned if it was. Now he knew which of its attacks to avoid and he knew how to get in close to defeat it. He would avoid another fight so soon if he could though, so he opted to walk in the opposite direction. That was a mistake.
“What the—”
The three piles sprouted up from the ground with three new enemies. Sam couldn’t believe his eyes. All three creatures looked just like the Hardass he’d just barely managed to kill.
“No! No! And hell no!”
Sam was terrified but he kept moving. He kept his wits about him as he considered his options. He knew that running, in a game like this, could be more harmful than good. He might easily pull another group of enemies into the fray and that would be disastrous. The enemies watched him and slowly closed in and he circled around them. Besides the fear of pulling more enemies, Sam also felt like he had a chance to win this fight. When he stripped away all the bullshit from his previous encounter, it was clear that it had taken two blows to actually kill the original Hardass. The two critical blows weren’t easy to get, but they were very powerful, doing at least ten times the damage of his most damaging normal attacks. All he needed was to get in close and find his opening.
Two of the Hardass clones started to attack. One wound up for the piercing attack, which Sam knew would poison him and the other went for the whipping attack. Sam concentrated on the one with the piercing attack and made sure to circle around it. The one with the whip attack was feinting again, so Sam had enough time to get in close and backstab the other one since it was already in range. The third one, which he had named Murderass—after Hardass Number Two and Hardass Number Three—was only now starting to attack. It went for a whipping strike as Sam’s blade claimed over half of the other creature’s HP. Sam was just wresting his blade from the creature when Murderass and Hardass Number Three’s attacks passed right through him. He smiled at his turn of luck.
“Wait your turn, Murderass and Hardass Number Three.”
Backstabs and hopefully other special attacks had some invincible frames to them, meaning he was safe as long as the attack was being performed. This fact and his speed were about the only advantages he had in this fight and he made sure to use every advantage he had.
The very end of the animation, right after he kicked the enemy from his blade, was not invincible. Hardass Number Two’s whipping strike showed him his vulnerability. The quick strike lashed at his leather clad body and reduced his health by a fifth, while Murderass landed a successive blow reducing him by another fifth. That quick, he had lost over a third of his health.
“Damn, you guys are hardcore.”
He wanted to take advantage while the other Hardass was still on the ground recovering, but together left no openings. When he saw the third creature getting to its feet, he tried to quickly create an opening with one of the other two. He tried to parry one of the whipping strikes, but only managed to partially reduce the damage and still took full damage from the other Hardass’ follow up strike. All in all, he now had less than a third of his health, so he retreated behind a tree and drank from his Soul Fire. He heard the blows from the creatures raining down on the thick trunk behind him. It gave him a wonderful idea.
He ran to the next tree, narrowly avoiding two piercing attacks. He did this around them, watching them, timing their blows as they struck tree after tree. Finally, he saw his next opening. As two of them launched the long range piercing attacks, the third continued to press forward towards him. He’d lost track of which one this was, but counted his blessings that it was closer than the others. Sam ran in close before it started its attack and simply waited, like he had with the original Hardass.
This Hardass clone did not disappoint. It went for the same close range strike as its predecessor and was met with the same response. Sam successfully threw its whip-like arm aside and plunged his dagger deep within its heart. This Hardass clone lost over half of its total health too. And just like with the backstab, the opening blow also had invincible frames for the duration of the attack.
“Oh no! Got to move!”
He was still only invincible while attacking and kicking the enemy from his blade. The short recovery afterwards where he was forced to back away a little was where he was still most vulnerable. This time the piercing attack from the other Hardass caught him right in the chest and he lost half his health instantly. He was unfortunately also poisoned.
He quickly rolled to the side and behind a
nother tree before the other one could follow up with an attack. The poison was coursing through him again, making him feel nauseated, and putting that hissing sound in his ear again. He let the health and poison duration bar drop a little before he healed himself with another swig of his Soul Fire. He only had one drink left and the poison assured he’d need it for that. He couldn’t get hit again or he would be seeing his first game over screen.
He had again forgotten which Hardass clones were which. Two of them were near death and the third still had all its health. All he needed was a good parry then opening blow or a backstab. He danced around the trees and considered his options. His enemies were still attacking, but there were only two of them together.
“Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap! Where are you?”
Sam’s stomach nearly dropped down to his feet. The missing creature was right in front of him and out the corner of his eye, he could see the other two running to other positions around him. They were trying to box him in.
“Shit!”
The one in front of him looked to be going for a new attack. Sam froze. He didn’t know what to expect. All he knew was that he couldn’t parry too early. He had to be reactionary. He had to perfectly predict his foe. He had to see the moment and origin of the strike. He saw it! It came right from the creature’s shoulders. The blow was fast and came from a new direction, but Sam was ready. The sideways slice was deflected upwards, leaving Sam with the perfect view of the creature’s pulsating blue heart. He quickly thrust his Dagger into it and watched it wilt away as its health ticked down to nothing.
The other two were approaching from his sides, both too far to attack, leaving Sam nervously ticking down the seconds of the opening blow’s animation. He saw his soul count increase but didn’t have time to see the amount. He rolled away backwards in a nick of time. Both Hardass assholes had launched twin piercing attacks. No doubt it would have killed him if both had hit at the same time. His health was ticking towards seventy percent.
So far, Sam had used some surprising skill and good tactics to take down one of the foes—well, two counting the original. Now, however, he needed luck. One of the Hardass clones was already half dead. He’d need to take that one out next if he had any hope to survive this. Fighting the last one, one-on-one, would be infinitely easier than his current dilemma.