The Space Rodeo
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SU&HM Bk 1 Ch 44
🕑 Added 2025-02-10 14:00:14 +0000 UTCThe glider packs went on easily. Daniel already had his on and went around adjusting the others. Rick wasn't sure how Daniel knew, but he had no choice but to trust either the man had the right host memories, or military training to adjust the harnesses right. It certainly felt more secure after Daniel had tugged the straps.
Nia kept glaring in Sam’s general direction, but she didn't seem to notice.
“Look,” Rick finally said as the team was nearly ready to go, “It’s not my fault that Sam’s apparently in the body of my host’s lover and you ended up with the scorned wife. I don’t like how the feelings are coming through for us. Just remember this isn’t real, right?”
"Sure, it wasn't your fault," Sam said with only a trace of sarcasm.
Nia whirled on her. “It was just synchronization with compatible hosts. It means nothing!”
"It's not really us here," Rick said, trying to defuse the situation. “I mean, come on, we don’t have four arms.”
Sam just cocked an eyebrow at him as if to say that much was obvious. Then she turned to Nia and said, “Like you know anything about synchronization.”
Nia's mouth dropped open at the tone of contempt in Sam's voice.
"Sam!" Rick said.
Sam jerked slightly and then shook her head. "Oh, I'm sorry, Nia," she said. She rubbed her temple with one hand. "I don't know what came over me. I really am sorry." She glanced at Rick, looking genuinely embarrassed. "Look, let's just get this done. The quicker, the better."
"Oh, all right," Gambit said, standing on the edge of the sheer cliff, his wings extended. “If you star-crossed lovers are done with your little spat, the rest of us are ready to get this thing rolling.” Daniel was studiously not looking at anyone, as he approached the edge as well.
Rick cleared his throat. "So what, we just jump off and go?"
Daniel nodded. "I think our counterparts know how to fly them, so..."
Gambit flashed a grin over his shoulder. "So, we should just jump and see if they don't get us killed." He took two quick steps and dove off the cliff.
"Holy..." Sam muttered, followed by an expletive. "That guy really doesn't have any fear, does he?"
Sam and Rick and the others watched as Gambit's wings pulled out of his death plummet and swooped out across the canyon, wings buoying him up through the air.
Rick shook his head. "I think he's just making up for never getting to ride with Genghis."
Daniel snorted at that. "Well, here goes nothing," he said, and deployed his own wings.
The hardest part was jumping off the edge. He dropped like a stone, his stomach falling into his boots. A wave of sheer terror froze him as the wind whistled past his head. Then the wings snapped out and he was soaring through the air. The ground spread out beneath him, shades of brown and red cut by a green-tinged silver ribbon snaking through it all. His heartrate dropped back down to normal, and Rick let his memory and his body do the rest. As they glided across the wide-open abyss, he felt his body shift and could see two more arms working the glider controls. That was weird, and he tried not to think about it too much.
They continued gliding down, dropping steadily, until they were below the top of the city. Halfway down, Rick felt fear that they might not make it to the city before dropping below its height. As they approached, a balcony swam into view. The far-distant Gambit was standing on it. Rick's glider banked sharply, bleeding off the last bits of speed and then he was coming in.
He let his host mind take over. There was a rush of wind and a sharp deceleration as the wings flared, and then he dropped, his feet landing on a solid deck.
"Get clear! The others are coming!" Gambit said. He and Daniel grabbed Rick by the wings and pulled him to one side.
There was a flurry of wind as first Sam and then Nia swooped down and landed. Nia yanked at the straps on her backpack, and the whole contraption crashed to the balcony. "Oh, never again! Oh, never again! If that's the only way out of here, I'm just going to fall when the city crashes. I don't care. Never again!"
Sam smirked at her, but Rick saw as she tugged at the straps on her pack that her hands were shaking. He carefully turned away as he removed his, hoping that she wouldn't see his were too.
By the time Rick started unbuckling his straps, Gambit already had his backpack off.
"I can't put it in my inventory," he said, holding the pack.
Daniel’s pack was nowhere to be seen. “Just collapse the wings first.” He moved to Gambit and pointed out the lever which would close the wings.
They all pulled of their packs and banished them into inventory.
The damage dealers all readied their weapons.
"You don't need to go into bear form?" Rick asked Sam.
She shook her head. "It only takes me a second. The world just makes more sense when I'm on two legs."
Rick nodded. He was getting hints of that his host persona felt the same way. They stepped through the door on the balcony and into what appeared to be an apartment, complete with a couch and a kitchen area. Rick scanned the place quickly. No one was in sight.
"Okay, Sam goes first. Then Daniel, then me, then Nia, and Gambit last."
Sam nodded, and the others just looked back and forth. No one seemed to have any objections.
Sam opened the door. Beyond was an empty hall.
"Do you think this place will be a maze, or will it just be on rails and take us straight from boss to boss?" Gambit asked from the back of the group.
"From my experience..." Sam slowed slightly so she could call back over her shoulder. "From my experience, these places are mostly on rails. There's rarely places where you can get completely lost. Not in a dungeon, anyway. There's more than a few labyrinths in the outside world."
"So how long do you think it'll be before we reach..." Rick shut up as they turned a corner and found themselves at the entrance of an atrium.
"Intruder alert!" A ten-foot-tall Rork in techno armor stood in the middle of the atrium, identified as [Security Commander Gronk], surrounded by a trio of seven-foot, four-armed enforcers. It was obvious what they were, because they had [Enforcer] titles over their heads. They wore black uniforms with shiny silver buttons and carried a truncheon in each of all four hands.
"This is gonna suck," Sam muttered, and an instant later she morphed into bear form.
"Maybe we should--" but she had already charged.
Sam was level 15, and these were level 12. They were considerably stronger than most of the party. Metal batons rained down on the bear from all directions. No single blow did her much harm, but there were an awful lot of blows. Her health slid steadily down into the yellow.
Rick threw Healing Cloud and followed it up with a Protection.
As the four minions of the boss all engaged her from every direction, the boss himself stood back, arms folded.
"Foolish intruders! You stand no chance against the might of Gabbro of the City Guards...” His monologue rolled on as the announcement popped up. [Fall of Skyrend, Boss 1, Gabbro the Enforcer Captain]
"Start with the one on the right!" Rick called. He had watched Sam hit it several good blows and thought her aggro should be sufficient. "Nia! Stick on Daniel's target!" It was going to be easier for her to see where the arrows landed than it would be for him to see where her blow darts were going, and it was important that they concentrated their shots.
He didn’t bother to give Gambit orders. As a professional gamer and an experienced melee DPS, Gambit knew how to look for which health bar was getting hit and focus his effort there. He also knew how to keep an eye on a tank and not pull aggro off of her. It was a skill based off of long experience. One Rick himself had practiced, though it didn't matter as much now that he was healing, that involved watching what the tank was hitting and keeping a mental estimation of just how much the tank had hit each of the targets and just how much he himself could damage it before he would get its attention. There were factors, like taunt skills, that could throw that estimation off, but an experienced melee DPSer would be able to adjust to those as well.
Sam's health ticked upward until the Protection bubble popped. By then, one of the three enforcers was getting into the red. Gambit let out a furious shout, and the power of it rolled over all of them. Rick saw Sam's health react as his healing ticks hit harder, and they all stood just a little straighter. The injured enforcer gurgled and slumped to the floor, his face and neck stitched with arrows and blow darts. The killing blow had come from Gambit's sword cleaving into his back. As soon as the enforcer fell, he was already turning to the next one, his sword hitting it in the neck before Daniel and Nia had even changed targets. Half the enforcer's health was gone in one blow. Clearly a critical strike. Rick felt a quick stab of jealousy. He could have done as well, given a chance. Healing was important, except right now it didn’t feel that way. Sam only needed a Protection now and then. That would change when they faced a more powerful threat, but at the moment Rick felt pretty useless.
The last two guards backed away, and the boss stepped forward. Damn. Rick had been hoping he would wait until all the enforcers were down, but apparently it wasn't that sort of fight.
"You are strong, but now you will know the true fury of—” Rick stopped paying attention at that point.
The flailing batons of the enforcers had caught Gambit several times, but the AOE effect of Rick's Healing Cloud washed over him and had him completely full. Sam was almost full by the time the boss drew his weapon. Instead of four normal batons, he carried two glowing rods. They were twice as long as the batons and crackled with energy, one with silver lightning, and the other with pulsing waves of red and orange.
Even as the boss drew his weapons, Sam charged into him, roaring and slashing with her claws. She laid open one of the boss's legs from knee to ankle, spraying the floor with blood and causing the boss to stagger backwards.
Gambit came in from the side and tried to focus his attacks on the arms themselves, but the boss parried him with the silver crackling rod. He raised the red baton and brought it smashing down on Sam. Rick's Protection was almost off cooldown, but it was more than a second late to save her from the hit. Her health was knocked down by a third, and she was sent sliding backwards from the force of the impact.
Both the surviving enforcers rushed in, sticks flailing. Sam let out a roar of agony as her health dipped past halfway and into the yellow. Rick’s Healing Cloud hit her again. It popped her back into the green, but only for an instant.
The boss stepped forward and raised its red glowing rod. It was still effortlessly keeping Gambit away with the silver crackling one. Arrows and blow darts stitched the boss's torso and chipped away at its health, but not fast enough.
"The enforcers!" Rick yelled. "Focus the enforcers!" as he cast another Healing Cloud. The boss's red baton whistled down at Sam and slammed into Rick's Protection bubble.
Rick had found that his Protection spell would absorb around twice as much damage as its description claimed if all of that damage came from one single attack. So, while the boss's attack popped the bubble instantly, almost none of the damage reached Sam. Rick's next Healing Cloud had her back in the green, just barely.
Gambit backed away from the boss. Having found he couldn't get through its defenses, he turned his attention to the enforcer Nia and Daniel were focusing on. He hit it from the side, slashing deep into its ribcage and dropping its health into the red.
The boss brought both of its rods, red and silver, down on Sam, swinging at her from left and right. She dodged the silver one and was knocked rolling by the other, fur smoldering as she tumbled across the floor. The boss charged after and hit her two more times. Rick threw Healing Cloud after Healing Cloud, but its primary heal was just not big enough.
Her health dropped Into the red. “Gambit, get back on the boss! You have to keep one arm busy! Get back on the boss”
The wounded enforcer had just fallen and Gambit was moving to engage the next one when Rick shouted. He turned and charged the boss, flashing across the intervening twenty feet in a blur. It was raising both of its weapons to deliver a killing blow on Sam when Gambit's charge took it in the side and knocked it staggering. Before it could get set, he tore into its wounded leg with three good slashes, left, right, and left again.
Reacting to the new threat, the boss pushed him back with the silver crackling rod and raised the red. But Sam was back on her feet and lunged in before it could swing on Gambit, teeth and claws tearing into its lower right arm.
Rick had not been able to follow Nia and Daniel's fight with the final enforcer. As he threw yet another Healing Cloud onto Sam, he heard a shout of triumph and glanced to his right. The final enforcer was impaled in a bouquet of spikes and splattered in tar. The last of its health drained away even as he looked.
There was no time to celebrate. Rick threw another Healing Cloud. Protection was almost off cooldown. The boss was staggering back under the onslaught, but it still fought back, catching Gambit with its silver rod. His relentless attack had left him vulnerable, and the boss caught him in the side, sending him tumbling to the floor with a ‘stunned’ debuff. He rolled over and was on his feet immediately, but he wasn’t as fast as he moved back to engage the boss. The blow knocked him out of Healing Cloud's range but he charged back in-time to catch part of the next one when Rick threw it.
With Gambit momentarily out of melee range the boss swung both rods at Sam, but Rick’s Protection cooldown was up. He caught the entirety of the red staff's attack and Sam's flurry of attacks deflected the silver rod. Its crackling energy still damaged her, but not as much as a direct hit would have.
She ignored the boss's next attack and lunged straight for its chest, roaring just as Gambit charged in from behind. He yelled his battle cry as he came, strengthening the entire party. The boss's health was now deep in the yellow, and the onslaught pushed it into red territory.
Gambit swung an underhanded blow into the boss's left side and severed the lower arm holding the silver rod. The boss roared in agony and knocked him away with the red fire rod still held in the stronger upper arm. The blow sent Gambit tumbling again, but did less damage than the previous two-handed hit.
Sam was back on the defensive, dodging a series of blows from the red staff, occasionally parrying a swing with her claws when she had to. She was taking minimal damage, but she wasn't able to do any in return.
Arrows and blowgun darts still thudded into the boss's torso like a drumbeat. He seemed to take no heed of them, but his health bar was deep red, approaching ten percent.
Gambit came roaring back in, eyes wide, yelling, not a skill, just rage. The boss swung one-armed at him with the silver staff. The swing was clumsy. Gambit dodged the blow. The boss swung again. Gambit parried with his razor and then swung it down into the wounded left leg of the boss, just above the knee. The blade bit deep to the bone and the boss's left leg buckled. He tried to catch himself, but his lower arm was severed. He hit the ground and rolled.
Flailing limbs knocked Gambit back. He recovered quickly and came back, razor-sword swinging for the boss's head, as Sam lunged in and chomped down on the boss's right leg.
The boss gave one final roar of dismay as Gambit's razor sliced into his skull. Sam shook the leg in her mouth back and forth, splattering blood over her white fur.
The fight was over.
Rick threw a few more heals to top everyone off as they caught their breath. The boss's body dissolved into a wooden chest that glowed with a golden aura.
