CLANG

The loud sound of Kaleb’s shield against the long blade resounded across the alleyway as he tried again to backpedal away from the 7-foot robot. The thing had ambushed him as he had left the street after a few blocks and tried taking a wide ally lined by 6-foot high stone fences on either side; his only warning had been the persistent ticking the creature made as it hid in one backyard beyond the stone fence.

7-feet tall the creature was humanoid with brown metal plating, a squat square head, a blocky body, reverse-jointed square legs, and three-toed talon-like feet had almost landed on him as it bounded over the fence. Kaleb had just enough time to leap back and fire his Ice Ray, spraying a white mist toward the creature’s torso, before the bot reoriented and leaped again using a long triangular blade attached to his right arm to thrust at him.

He had raised his left arm, hoping the shield would deploy and while the sound of Shocky uncurling from his forearm had given him some relief the blade was too much for the small shield punching an inch wide hole in the shield that grew as the blade pushed forward and made its way toward his chest.

Quickly, he leaped back again trying to minimize damage to his only form of protection and tried to raise his ray gun to fire again but the robot was relentless, charging forward and swiping its long blade upward at him scoring a large gash on Kaleb’s right thigh.

Grimacing against the sudden pain, he made a mental note to check the pain settings on his pod later, Kaleb batted the next attack away with his buckler as he tried to sidestep around the creature in a wide arc and found that his early blast with his Ice Ray hadn’t been useless as the robot was slow to turn and reorient its body. He could hear a loud whirring and gears creaking as it tried to align itself for another attack.

After that Kaleb continued to circle strafe the robot and fire off his Ice Ray whenever he could, it had gotten close at one point when he had stopped to find the robot’s health bar, only to discover it didn’t have one, and the robot swung its large blade at him again, resulting in the loud clash between Shocky and the blade. Backing up again, he stayed on his toes watching the robot as ice and frost shined on its brown metal body, it no longer lunged at him only slowly trudged after him on its weird reverse jointed legs.

Looking it over again, he finally noticed the blood red words hovering above the creature’s head as it slowly moved toward him that read Bladeling.

Glancing down at the Bladeling again Kaleb figured “it has to be near death by now” flexing the fingers on his robotic arm he stepped forward “time for a field test, Shocky” he thought as he rushed to meet the slow-moving Bladeling. The Bladeling seemed surprised as it tried for a quick overhead chop at the oncoming lizard-man, catching the blade with his buckler Kaleb pushed forward, knocking the robot back against the stone fence and trapping its blade arm between its body and his buckler, continuing forward he slammed the surprised Bladeling into the alley wall, its legs scrambling on the dirt-covered ally floor.

With the Bladeling momentarily immobilized he quickly dropped his Ice Ray and groped the back of the buckler only to discover that the switch was somewhere inside his robot arm, eyes wide in shock he didn’t see the large metal fist swing out toward his face.

The Bladeling had used its free left arm and had thrown a punch; the fist impacted against Kaleb’s cheek and rocked his head roughly to the right. The robot tried to push him away, leaning against his left arm Kaleb pushed back while trying to dodge the incoming punches.

He had taken 2 more blows to the head before the thought occurred to him to activate Shocky by thought. Flipping the switch in his mind a low hum emanated from the buckler and a loud electric snap sounded in the air.

Immediately the Bladeling jerked to a stop and seemed tense up, the loud ticking stopping completely, and every couple of seconds its body twitched. Not taking any chances, Kaleb backed up and grabbed his Ice Ray off the ground, belatedly thinking he should make a holster for it later.

Aiming the weapon at the unmoving robot he held the trigger coating the robot in a thick layer of ice and frost, halfway through the Bladeling tried to get up but it barely took a step before it fell face first with the sound of metal plates cracking and gears falling loose within its frame.

Adrenaline fading from his system Kaleb winced at the pain still coming from his leg and face, looking at his health bar he found that his health had dropped to 63 and his stamina was down to 15. He also had the golden exclamation point glowing at the bottom right of his vision.

Deciding to check the golden icon later he first navigated to the system settings and checked the pain tolerance levels, but they were set to 20%, the recommended setting. He didn’t remember being slashed in other games hurting this bad but it had been a while since he played a game. Putting the settings away he mentally selected the golden icon.

*Congratulations*

Through the rigors of battle, you have earned 4 skills: Endurance, Toughness, Shield Mastery, and Gadget Mastery.

Endurance Lvl 1–Through training and battle your natural Stamina has increased. Through continual training and use, you can increase your stamina to the limits for Mundanes. Combinable skill.

Current Stamina increase: 10%

Toughness Lvl 1–Maybe you were a punching bag in a past life but your ability to take a hit and keep ongoing puts you a cut above some Mundanes. Taking more devastating hits, while not recommended, will raise this skill to the limits for Mundanes. Combinable skill.

Current Health increase: 5%

Current physical damage decrease: 1%

Shield Mastery Lvl 1–Sometimes the best offense is a good defense. you have started your journey down the path of defense. Be the bulwark between your allies and the enemy. Your skill with a shield increases your defense while you have a shield equipped and other masters of the shield may now single you out for training.

Current Defense increase: +1

May now learn techniques from shield trainers

Gadget Mastery Lvl 1–Successfully using your gadgets in the field has given you new insight into how they work. Proper handling is a must so you can avoid a malfunction and will also provide insight on how gadgets could be made from enemies.

Current gadget failure rate decrease: 1%

Current blueprint drop rate increase: 3%

Kaleb nodded as he read the skills he had earned while he didn’t know what a combinable skill was the skills were fairly standard. Except for Gadget Mastery although DIY Armorer’s drop rate increase combined with it and counted in the overall increase. So he had started at 1% and DIY Armorer and Gadget Mastery had added 1% apiece.

Thinking about drops made him realize the Bladeling had yet to disappear and was still laying there in the middle of the alley. Ready to start the loot drop he reached out to touch the robot; before he made contact, he got a small window asking if he wanted to loot the Bladeling. Confirming his decision to loot, Kaleb shielded his eyes as a bright light engulfed the Bladeling, as the light dissipated he stared at a few small scraps of metal, some wire, and a brown piece of folded up paper.

Unfolding the paper showed that it was a blueprint for a Junk Sword similar to the Bladeling’s own triangular one, no stats and he wasn’t sure if it exactly counted as a gadget blueprint but he could work with it. Mentally opening his inventory for the first time was also a small let down, he only had 5 spots in his inventory. Shaking his head, he picked up his meager winnings and placed them in his inventory taking up 3 of the spots.

As he did, he felt the loot appear in the pockets of his lab coat, “Well shit, I could have done that.” He grumbled into the empty alleyway. Counting his pockets he found he had the same number of pockets as inventory slots, he let an exasperated sigh “Ok, so the next item on my list of shit to build will be a backpack.”

Looking at his wounded thigh and checking his HP and Stamina bars, it looked like the wound had closed up but he still had a long scar going up the top of his thigh and his health had risen to 65 and his stamina to 33. Estimating he’d been in the alley around 4 minutes since the fight ended he figured he gained 5 stamina per minute, and health at 1 point every 2 minutes!!

“That is ridiculously slow.” He thought. Was it because he was Mundane? Did everyone heal at a slow rate? Would he gain a skill that let him heal faster? Maybe if he sat down. The traditional hey-I’m-resting-could-you-increase-my-recovery-rate position.

Sitting cross-legged with his back to the stone wall he stared at his health bar. As the seconds ticked by he grew increasingly concerned, mentally counting off the time he discovered that his Regen rate had increased to 2 points a minute instead of 1 every two minutes.

Gaining 2 health a minute wasn’t great, and it meant he had to rest for around 18 minutes, but at least he could still take part in the Tutorial Event. Waiting till his health was at 85, Kaleb picked himself up continued westward through the alley and across the neighboring street.

He fought a few more Bladeling’s that were patrolling the area either solo or in pairs, he actively avoided the pairs. He found he could more easily handle a single Bladeling with his various bonuses and Shield Mastery’s increase to defense seemed to make his buckler more durable against the Bladeling’s strikes.

Dealing with his latest mob by bashing its frozen head in with Shocky he heard the sounds of battle coming from a few streets over, collecting the few pieces of loot he checked that his HP and Stamina were ok before rushing through the nearest alley toward the cacophony. After 2 blocks he came upon the source of the tumult. A raging battle was taking place, robots and creatures of pure elemental magic were fighting a large group of what looked like players.

Multicolored humans and humanoids clashed against a small army of brown robots and creatures of fire, earth, and wind a few feet up the road from where he stood in the alleyway. He watched as a green female with long black hair threw a Bladeling by its arm from the road into the garage door of a nearby house, quickly thereafter a lion humanoid with a red-tipped mane blurred into view beside the poor Bladeling and ripped into with his claws, after checking his work the lion man blurred back into the melee.

Closer to where Kaleb stood he saw robed players casting fireballs and spears of ice into the mass of bodies while up above various flying players rained down differently colored energy beams and elemental attacks from different sources on their bodies, one teal skinned flyer seemed to shoot lightning from his crotch.

Scanning the battle revealed two facts: 1-the players were winning this fight by a large margin and 2-the players were devoid of both health bars and names. All one could discern was the player’s Origin based on a semi-transparent icon off-center above their heads, Aliens had the iconic image of a grey alien face, mutants had the double helix, and mages a large spell book.

He didn’t immediately see another mundane until he found a man in a brown trench coat on the far side of the street, crouched behind a parked car in a driveway, he was taking potshots with a large bore energy pistol; it seemed the Mundane symbol was a black silhouette of a man’s head.

Deciding to copy the other Mundane, Kaleb rushed across several front yards to get alongside the melee of people and fired his Ice Ray at the mass of robots and elementals from behind the safety of another car. Aiming low hoping to slow any enemies that attacked him, he hit a few robots and even a fire elemental with the mist pouring from his gun.

The fire element seemed to take particular offense at the cold spray and broke away from the main fight to charge at him, continuing to spray the oncoming being of pure fire Kaleb moved away from the parked car and tensed his legs ready to jump away. Steam rose off the elemental, and it seemed to shrink as it charged headlong into the Ice Ray’s spray going from a 10 foot tall raging inferno to a 7 foot tall bonfire as it collided with the parked car; as it hit Kaleb leaped away curling into a ball and rolling into a standing position with his shield up expecting an explosion.

When nothing happened, he snapped his Ice Ray up and poured more liquid nitrogen onto the creature as it seemed only slightly hindered by the car, gliding over the back-end leaving a trail of burnt metal and smoke. As the elemental continued its charge it grew shorter and shorter eventually disappearing in the green crystal forest of frozen grass with nothing but the smoking, burning car to signify its existence.

Exhaling, Kaleb turned back to the battle only to see a half-frozen Bladeling mid-leap barreling toward him, with no time to lift his buckler Kaleb tried to shift his body away from the sharp blade pointed for the middle of his chest.

Two loud cracks resounded as two corresponding sparks flashed one at the blade, sending it careening away from Kaleb’s body, the other further back at the knee joint of the robot, the robot missed Kaleb by inches as it twisted away landing awkwardly on a frozen and busted knee joint. The unknown shooter continued to fire into the half-dead robot aiming at every exposed joint and rarely missing.

As the robot seemed to shudder and collapse into the yard Kaleb looked for the shooter finding a short older man strolling across the nearby driveway, twin revolvers held in front of him. The man personified the grizzled old cowboy stereotype complete with a tan Stetson and cowboy boots, wearing a red button-up shirt and blue jeans the man appeared to be in his early forties, had a weather-worn tanned face framed by a salt and pepper beard, and bright mischievous brown eyes.

Judging the creature dead the old cowboy gestured with one of his revolvers before holstering it and reloading the other “Loot is yours if you want it, son.” He said as he loaded his revolver

“No thanks, that was all you.” Kaleb replied.

The older man seemed to start a bit at the sound of Kaleb’s guttural raspy voice although Kaleb didn’t think it was that different from the cowboy’s voice. The old man had what his dad called a 2-pack-a-day voice low and gravelly.

The old cowboy chuckled before he holstered his gun and reloaded the other “Too right, but it seems there are plenty more to go around and, really, I ain’t got no use for those scraps those things drop.”

Kaleb’s pockets were loaded with the scrap metal and wires he had looted on his way here and several copies of the junk sword blueprint when he said as much to the old cowboy the older gentleman raised an eyebrow

“You looking to be a crafter son?” Kaleb shook his head while quickly looting the Bladeling “No, I’m a Mundane Scientist so every bit of scrap helps.” Kaleb watched the old man’s eyes drift upward toward his Origin icon, doing the same Kaleb noticed that the old man was a mutant.

“Didn’t think I’d meet too many to go the Mundane route, you’re crazy or cocky. I went Mutant myself, got me some Enhanced Reflexes. Still gotta aim but quick as I am, I’ve got all the time in the world.” Said the cowboy as he finished loading his second gun and spun the cylinder “Well I better get back at it, don’t need the missus seeing me slacking off. If you and that water gun are ready, what say you and me send a few of these mean ole robots back to hell?”

Kaleb gave a toothy grin at the old man’s description of his Ice Ray as a water gun and replied “Sounds good, but I’ll have you know this ‘water gun’ is the pinnacle of junkyard science.”

The old man just grinned back “Yeah, yeah, all I heard was junk. Name’s Two Gun.”

Two Gun stuck his hand out, grasping it Kaleb introduced himself “Professor Pack Rat, and I know hearing loss can happen during old age.”

As they finished shaking hands Two Gun’s name appeared in bold white letters above his head, right next to the double helix Origin icon. Two Gun glanced upward at what Kaleb assumed was his own name revealing itself before he drew both guns and fired into the mass of robot, elementals, and players saying “Quit your lip and fire, boy.”

Turning to the mass of bodies the pair noticed that while the crowd had gotten smaller a new group of robots had entered the battle. Larger than the smaller Bladelings these new Bruisers lived up to their names, made of the same brown metal the Bruisers stood at least 3 feet taller than a Bladeling with large square bodies and tree trunk-sized arms and legs. The Bruisers waded into the melee with beach-ball sized metal balls attached to both arms which they were using to great effect against the players.

The pair were an effective team, Kaleb would slow and freeze over the joints of the nearest robot and Two Gun would send his bullets into their joints crippling them.

Soon the pair were joined by a mage almost as tall as Kaleb, who took it upon himself to send spears of ice into the downed mobs finishing them completely. Taking out 5 Bladelings and even a Bruiser this way the trio, along with the other players mopped up the remaining enemies. With only a handful of robots and elementals left the enemy mobs broke and ran northward along the street with several flyers and speedsters given chase.

“They’re headed for the bridge into downtown” Kaleb shouted over the remaining energy beams and fighting that was going on in the street.

The linebacker mage nodded as Two Gun shouted back “I see’em.” Looking over the quickly emptying battlefield he seemed to find what he was looking for “Claire!”

Kaleb followed his gaze to see the green-skinned woman he noticed earlier, standing on top of a prone Bruiser and pulling one of its arms off as a smaller woman in tan khakis and a black hoodie stood near its head and jammed a black blade made of some inky, shifting blackness, into it.

Hearing her name the green woman’s head snapped up, and she caught sight of Two Gun, giving a wide smile she nodded then step down off the Bruiser’s chest and talked to the smaller girl. Kaleb scanned his eyes northward as players and enemies alike rushed up the road, stranger yet, some enemies had split off and headed westward with some players hot on their heels.

“Looks like some of them are going for the bridges further west” the deep voice surprised Kaleb, and he glanced around for the source seeing only the large mage standing nearby, eyes locked on where Kaleb had just been looking.

Kaleb looked over the mage, around 6’2” with a massive muscular frame and short cropped military style hair he was practically bursting from his robe, the guy looked like he’d be more at home wielding a claymore in some fantasy game rather than flinging spells around but other than the maroon robe he wore the guy carried no weapon.

Two Gun turned to face them as the two women made their way over to the 3 men “I reckon groups of the things are making their way to every bridge along the south of downtown Austin.” he said, the big mage and Kaleb nodded agreeing with the assumption “Now if you two don’t mind, I wonder if you’d join me in a little experiment. As you might have noticed this game doesn’t use the traditional leveling system. With that being the case I wondered what the incentive would be for players to group up.”

Kaleb nodded although he had a thought “Wouldn’t the incentive just be the ability to take on bigger mobs, so our skills would increase faster?” He asked

“That is what I told him.” said a female British voice. Kaleb glanced over Two Gun’s shoulder to see Claire and the short girl walking up, he noticed that although he knew her name was Claire, the space above her head remained blank.

He figured that without her full name it would remain so or she had to introduce herself. She wore a set of leather armor covering her upper torso with leather pauldrons on either shoulder and plain beige cotton pants. The armor was scratched and scarred with the recent battle and her dark green skin seemed to glisten with sweat. She wasn’t traditional beautiful but striking with sharp features stressed by a slim pointed nose and her black hair was in a ponytail down her back. She towered over them, easily the size of a Bladeling, but despite her size and earlier display of strength she had the body of a fit gymnast rather than a bodybuilder.

Stooping down to hug the elderly cowboy it was obvious they hadn’t quite acclimated to their new in-game heights which resulted in a short awkward embrace where Two Gun had tried to get his arms around the taller woman’s neck, he eventually settled for nuzzling her torso as she draped her arms around him.

They heard a short cough from nearby as the other female shuffled her feet nervously. “Oh, I apologize dear. Love, this is Abby Nightmare, she was most helpful in battling these mobs.” Claire released Two Gun and gestured over at the shadow-blade wielding girl, although her blade had disappeared on the walk over judging by her double helix icon it was probably a mutant power.

The girl was barely 5’2” with shoulder-length brown hair and a round face, dark green eyes offset her distinctly Asian facial features. It surprised him that her clothes seemed devoid of any combat damage, her khakis were a little dirty but that was it. She had somehow gone through the fight without being hit as a melee fighter! she was either lucky or good.

As her name appeared above her head, she gave a short wave and a quiet “Hello.” as she looked over the 3 men.

Two Gun gave a polite “ma’am” and tipped his hat, looking back to Claire he said “These two also helped me,” gesturing to Kaleb and the mage he continued “not sure of the quiet one’s name but the mouthy one goes by Professor Pack Rat.”

Kaleb opened his mouth to refute the “mouthy” comment, but he realized that might just prove the old man right. As he closed his mouth, he realized it was too late, the others had noticed his unspoken retort and the women and the mage were all glancing upward just above his head.

Deciding it was better to roll with it, he responded: “You haven’t seen mouthy yet, old timer.”

Claire gave a soft laugh as she said “Careful dear, I’m older than him.”

Kaleb just stared at her, as she appeared to be in her mid-twenties, so he waited for the old VR joke; giving an exaggerated model pose she continued “I’ve had work done.”

Both Two Gun and the mage groaned as Abby gave a polite laugh, Kaleb just shook his head and looked toward the large man in wizard robes.

Finished shaking his own head the mage looked up at the group and introduced himself “Name’s Jar-Lock.”

Kaleb stifled a snort to little effect causing the others to look at him “Sorry,” he said “but a jarhead warlock named Jar-lock? Let me guess, Star Marine?”

Jar-lock flashed a wide grin as he responded “Retired.”

The group laughed as Two Gun wrapped his arm around Claire’s waist “This is my lovely wife Claire Bear.”

Claire leaned into the smaller man and looked around at the group saying “Call me Claire, why I agreed to this ridiculous name is beyond me.”

Two Gun smiled up at his wife “You know the deal: if we switch to a new game the one with the higher level chooses the other's name.”

Kaleb laughed softly before bringing the group back to the start of the conversation “So old man, you were about to ask us to group up?”

Two Gun nodded and said “Yes, I was. I reckon there’s gonna be a big fight on the bridge up ahead and while we don’t get XP at least we should get better loot.” As he finished talking a window obscured Kaleb’s view.

*Two Gun has invited you to join a group*

Accept?

Yes/No

Kaleb selected yes, but other than the color of everyone’s name changing from white to blue and a list of their health bars appearing in the top right corner of his vision he received no other notifications.

Two Gun, though, barked a short laugh as he stared into the space in front of him “Says here that the chance for better quality loot goes up to 5% and that since I’m one of the first people in the game to start a group, it’s increased another 5%.” He grinned as he rubbed his hands together excited at the prospect.

Kaleb almost laughed at the man’s eagerness and said: “Calm down, you don’t want to give yourself a heart attack, old man.” Claire’s sharp look almost made him think he stepped over some line but Two Gun’s laugh seemed to placate her.

Two Gun muttered. “Mouthy, I tell ya, kids today are just mouthy.”

Checking that everyone was ready the group headed off toward the bridge. The group had gone three blocks before a Bruiser and Bladeling pair rushed out between two houses half a block ahead of them and ran at the group.

Two Gun’s voice rang out as they all switched into a full run to meet the pair “They’re slowing down stragglers headed for the bridge.”

Abby’s soft voice called back “Then we should make this quick.”

Deciding to try a maneuver he had used on other Bladelings when he soloed them, Kaleb rushed forward ahead of the group which wasn’t easy with Claire’s larger gait but he pulled ahead and called over his shoulder “I’m about to try something, be ready.”

He heard a responding shout, but he ignored it as he put on another burst of speed. Lining himself up with the charging Bladeling in the center of the road he waited till the robot readied its lunge attack by curling its legs under itself when it released into its jumping lunge he had already leaped sideways to his left.

Quickly pivoting and charging into the Bladeling’s shoulder hard with his robot arm and Shocky. Aided by his Shield Mastery skill, Kaleb barreled into the robot as he activated Shocky knocking it through the air the short distance into the oncoming Bruiser. With no time to react the Bruiser collided with the Bladeling sending them both skidding into the street.

Kaleb had just enough time to spray them down with a quick blast from his Ice Ray before the rest of his group arrived. Claire immediately fell on the larger Bruiser pummeling it further into the asphalt with her fists as Abby chopped into the Bladeling with her reformed shadow-blade, Two Gun and Jar-lock stood further back taking shots at whatever came into view.

Kaleb, meanwhile, stood to the side, winded after his long sprint and shield bash which had dropped his stamina to 30. The group was making short work of the two robots, even without Kaleb’s help, so he had clicked on the notification icon and was reading it when the group finished tearing the mobs apart.

He heard Jar-lock’s deep voice from beyond the window saying “That was a good hit.”

Kaleb closed out the window and smiled at the mage “Good enough to raise Shield Mastery to Lvl 2.” he responded.

Two Gun’s head seemed in danger of twisting off as he spun his head toward Kaleb “You’ve already got a combat skill!?” He asked, surprised.

Kaleb slowly nodded and said, “Yeah I’ve gotten a bunch of skills, although Shield and Gadget Mastery are the only combat ones I think.”

Two Gun’s eyes widen as he asked: “Where in the hell did you get a gadget?”

Kaleb tilted his head quizzically “I built them,” he said gesturing with his Ice Ray and Shocky “Where did you get your weapons?”

Two Gun whistled slowly through his teeth as he said “I found them in the ranch house Claire and I spawned in. Y’know I’ve been shooting these guns awhile now but I still have gotten nothing like a marksman skill.”

Jar-lock interrupted their conversation commenting “Maybe Mundanes gain skills easier, you know, so they can be more effective.”

Kaleb nodded his head adding “Or you have to practice shooting without your mutant abilities.”

Two Gun looked thoughtful and was about to say something before Claire broke in “While I too would love to share information on the different Origins, perhaps we could have this conversation later?”

Two Gun seemed to calm down as he turned to his wife “You’re right, Hun, we should get to the bridge,” turning back to Kaleb as the group jogged down the street again, he added “I’m adding you to my friend list and we will have a conversation later about them gadgets, if you’re off making gadgets I got two slots that need filling.”

Kaleb smiled mischievously and asked mockingly “You’ve only got two gadget slots?”

Two Gun looked shocked and was about to ask another question before Kaleb picked up his pace and ran forward chuckling. As he pulled up beside Abby he could hear her laughing softly as Two Gun shouted from behind them “You’ve got more than two gadget slots!?”

The group encountered one other batch of enemies as they traveled out of the suburbs approaching a wide patch of grass and trees before the road rose into the bridge proper. The two Bruisers appeared just before the last house on the block, but with Kaleb icing one down as Claire beat the thing to scrap and Abby kiting the other around as Two Gun and Jar-lock chipped away at its health the group made short work of the pair of Bruisers.

After some lukewarm loot, just bigger pieces of scrap, the group continued. It was as the group was starting up the incline to the bridge that Kaleb heard it he didn’t know exactly what it was at first but then he noticed it again, someone was calling for help.

Kaleb stopped jogging and listened for the noise again, hearing nothing he called out to the others who had stopped ahead when they noticed he had “Did you guys hear that?”

Abby shook her head as the others gave a collective “Hear what?”

Kaleb nodded toward the woods where he had noted the voice coming from “Someone was calling for help.”

Two Gun looked dubious “You sure?”

Kaleb shook his head “Not really,” he wasn’t sure, but he was playing a hero, right? Looking at the others he said “You guys keep going, I’m gonna look real quick.” The others all looked pensive, torn between helping their new friend and increasing their own rewards during the Tutorial Event.

Seeing their hesitation Kaleb smiled “It’s fine, I’m adding you guys to my friend list if this turns out to be nothing I’ll join you on the bridge.”

Two Gun scratched his beard and nodded “All right, but stay in the group. If something happens, we’ll see it and we can keep the 10% increase for better loot.”

The others were all nodding their heads as Two Gun finished speaking; laughing and nodding his own assent, Kaleb opened his interface and added the group to his friend’s list. With a few “be carefuls” and “good lucks” sounding behind him, Kaleb ran into the woods on the eastern side of the road heading for where his best guess said the cry for help had come from.

Winding through the loose collection of trees and brush at a quick jog it wasn’t long before Kaleb could see signs of another road ahead of him. Exiting the small collection of trees revealed he was at a small bend in a road coming from the south then curving further eastward around a block of older looking buildings and storefronts. Further south along the far side of the road, in front of an old laundromat and an older-looking hardware store were two Bruisers with their backs to him swinging their round clubbed hands at something he couldn’t see.

Running along the street toward the battling Bruisers he saw they had already caused quite a lot of damage to several storefronts and a few cars they had bashed into the center of the road. Weaving his way around the cars in the street Kaleb watched the Bruisers swing their large hands at whoever was fighting them, whoever it was they had to be almost out of stamina.

As that thought finished in his head he heard a loud grunt and thud as the sound of a body hitting the sidewalk drifted to him; the Bruisers shifted lifting their arms as they bracketed the prone body of a young male in a baseball uniform and wearing a Letterman’s jacket with a baseball bat laying close to where he’d fallen.

Ignoring cover, Kaleb rushed forward lifting his Ice Ray and shouting “Move, kid!” as he sprayed a blast of mist at the two Bruisers. The spray hit the Bruisers high on their chest and drifted down as the young man, looking dazed, rolled backward then stood up readying his bat as he did. Kaleb noted that the kid had no Origin icon making him most likely an NPC.

As they turned to face him Kaleb could see that while one Bruiser had the now typical blood red Name tag above his head, the other had the name Benny in silver letters with some red color fading up into the bottom of each letter. “Fuck.” Kaleb stated, seeing a named enemy for the first time.

Keeping the trigger on his Ice Ray pulled he tried to coat the two robots as best he could but while the Bruiser was visible slowed Benny didn’t seem to mind the cold at all. A loud clanging crunch rang out from behind the Bruiser surprising Kaleb, he’d assumed the NPC had run for it but apparently not as the kid had just connected with his metal bat against the back of the Bruiser.

Wondering at the effectiveness of a bat against the metal automatons, Kaleb almost missed it when Benny charged at him swinging his left club right at Kaleb’s chest; Kaleb had just enough time to raise Shocky and activate it before the force of the blow lifted him off his feet and sent him crashing through the large glass window of the hardware store colliding with a circular magazine rack which sent his Ice Ray spinning from his grasp as he tumbled to the tiled floor in a heap.

Gasping for air Kaleb listened to his robotic arm creak and whine as he used it to sit up into a kneeling position; after a few seconds of coughing and gasping he winced as air refilled his lungs sending waves of pain across his chest. While his buckler and left arm had taken the brunt of the attack, it had slammed both into his ribs.

Looking up, he could see Benny trying to push his way through the small opening of the destroyed window and caught the loud clangs of the young man’s bat against the other Bruiser as they rang out in the street.

Searching around for his Ice Ray he saw it laying against the north wall of the store, pushing past the pain in his chest he scurried over to pick it up as the ceiling groaned from the pressure of Benny’s upper body trying to push through it. Grabbing his gadget he followed the north wall through the far side of the destroyed window so he was facing Benny’s left side.

Quickly spraying the robot, Kaleb heard a loud clattering coming from his Ice Ray but before he could investigate Benny had turned and raised both arms to crush him. Dashing into the street Kaleb heard a loud crash and looked behind to see Benny lifting his round fists from a small crater in the sidewalk; as Benny stalked forward out into the street after him Kaleb aimed his Ice Ray at the asphalt by Benny’s feet, oddly the clattering in the ray gun had stopped.

The road cracked and froze rapidly as Benny tromped across it, Benny lost his footing and fell cracking the asphalt even more. With his large round ball-like hands Benny could not lift himself off the icy road; while trying to think of a way to finish the robot off Kaleb heard a male voice cry out “I could use some help over here!”

Looking toward the voice Kaleb found the guy with the baseball bat had moved further south down the street and was now dodging and weaving around his Bruiser striking at it whenever he could, but the bat was a poor weapon and could hardly dent the metal Bruiser.

Leaving Benny still scrambling on the ground trying to stand Kaleb turned to help and saw his chance when the young baseball player had led the Bruiser around a small sedan in the street causing the robot to put his back to Kaleb. Running as quickly as his injuries would allow Kaleb vaulted onto the hood of the sedan then leaped onto the Bruiser’s back trying to maintain a death grip on his Ice Ray.

Quickly scrabbling for a handhold amongst the metal plating of the robot with his free hand Kaleb settled with wrapping his robotic arm partially around its square head. Trying to maintain his hold as the Bruiser pivoted, smashing its left arm into the sedan and sending it crashing to the curb, Kaleb raised his Ice Ray and jammed it into a space in its armor right where its shoulder attached to its body, Two Gun had used it to some effect but Kaleb was unsure of what would happen if his Ice Ray froze the Bruiser from the inside out.

The results were effective, almost immediately the Bruiser shuddered and stopped as its inside froze, the metal plate he was laying against cooled rapidly, oddly soothing the pain in his chest but it got to be too much and he released his hold as the robot crashed to its knees then face-planted into the street, unmoving. Again, he didn’t notice the clattering from his Ice Ray that he’d noted earlier; he’d almost think it had come from Benny if he wasn’t so sure it had been his gun.

Before he had time to inspect the gun thoroughly a loud crunching came from behind him, turning he saw that Benny was using his small-wrecking-ball hands to propel himself slowly toward them. Not wanting to get in close with Shocky, and with no other way to attack Kaleb raised his Ice Ray. Benny noticed and tried to pick up the pace of his weird arm walk. Kaleb trained the spray at the spot where Benny’s arms meet the asphalt trying to slip up the robot’s movement but Benny just punched harder into the newly frozen ground.

As Benny got closer practically ignoring the Ice Ray’s spray he shuddered and shook violently until he stopped moving altogether, as Benny stopped Kaleb released the trigger on his ray gun and watched the robot. Benny stood motionless held up on his two arms 15 feet away from Kaleb and the young man with the baseball bat.

As quickly as it stopped, the shaking started again and steam began rapidly pouring out of Benny’s joints. It shook violently for a few seconds before something shifted up near its square head, the metal plate on the front of its head seemed to melt away, revealing two large goggle-like red eyes peering out from the pitch black interior of its square head, the shaking stopped again and for the first time Kaleb heard one robot make a noise other than the constant ticking all the automatons seemed to make.

“ARGHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

Benny gave a loud otherworldly roar as the steam seemed to pick up speed creating a dense fog raising rapidly around the robot. As the roar ended Benny, the Bruiser reared back like a mechanical gorilla and slammed both his ball like fists into the street creating two craters and rocketing the robot into a standing position.

“Get away” Kaleb yelled to the young man behind him as he fired his Ice Ray again, Benny charged again moving much faster and leaving depressions in the street as he stomped closer. Kaleb backed away as he continued firing but Benny was closing fast and his ray gun was making the clattering noise again, he could see that his Ice Ray was having a greater effect as frost was accumulating on the robot’s torso and thighs.

As Benny grew closer the clattering in Kaleb’s gun had reached a new high, he released the trigger hoping to stop the noise but the Ice Ray continued spraying. As the noise grew louder and louder and Benny charged ever nearer, metal plates cracking and leg pistons whining loudly from the deluge of below zero mist, Kaleb chanced a glance at his Ice Ray noticing for the first time the large crack in the power crystal housing and the crystal itself shaking against its glass enclosure violently.

There was a sudden loud crack and a small explosion and suddenly the Ice Ray was gone leaving an icy mist and coating Kaleb’s right arm in frost and ice. As the Ice Ray exploded Kaleb felt the sudden numbness, then the searing pain as his skin boiled and hissed, closing his eyes against the pain Kaleb heard metal crunching and tearing.

Forcing his eyes open he glimpsed Benny’s right leg ripping off at the knee leaving his foot and leg frozen to the street causing Benny to trip and barrel into Kaleb’s right side sending both to the ground, Kaleb heard something shatter than a loud clanging noise as the robot that was pinning him to the streets shook with each loud clang then Kaleb, lost in pain, fell unconscious.