Chapter 25

Splitting

They came out without Joe and explained he respawned. “I don’t know what to do. I’ve always been a leader and always acted as if I knew what to do in any situation. But we’re in a mess beyond my reasoning here,” complained Gary.

Brun stepped up. “Joe was my good friend for many years, and we want to save him but we have to leave here. We’re less than two days from eject and it’s almost a full day walk to the final cave. Your squad has only seven days left until eject Gary, and you’ve got to be strong enough to finish it without us. You can now defeat the rocs east of the entrance portal for more points in hidden cave two. I say Rome teleports your squad to the entrance and you guys fight the rocs. Then you’ll have to go to cave twelve, and when time runs too low, go straight to the final cave.”

“You and Torger go ahead. I’m staying to help my brother,” said Rome.

“Joe wouldn’t want you to do that and you know it.”

Rome looked to Torger then reluctantly nodded. “He would be pissed if I got stuck here or died instead of him. We’ll leave you guys a message at the crash site.”

Torger took off his mithril bracers and gauntlets and handed them to Gary. Rome looked to Gary who nodded. He cast Teleport 3 and Gary, Nikko and Tyler were sent to the entrance portal. He stiffened his shoulders and began walking toward the center of the desert. Torger and Brun followed behind him in silence. They walked until they were close to the crash, tired from a fast walk for thirty hours.

A mile away three sand snakes burst out of the ground and attacked them. Brun cast Analyze 2 and said they were level twenty-nine, all strength and health. Brun and Rome cast Shield 2 around themselves while Torger sliced up the third one running around its wriggling body halfway out of the sand. But his stamina was low from the long walk, and soon he was moving slow and breathing hard. He cast Shield 2 around himself and strengthened it to 550 points, using all his mana. The sand snakes kept attacking the shields, but it held while Torger recovered. Rome had strengthened his and Brun’s shields draining his own mana.

Each sand snake attacked a different man. Rome and Brun’s shields shattered at the same time and they ran. Brun cast Poison 2 hitting one snake, then the spell split and hit the other two snakes. All three giant sand snakes had half their health points disappear, and lost one more point every four seconds from the venom.

Rome and Brun ran but the snakes could move even faster under the ground. Two monsters burst up out of the sand right behind them and Rome jumped out of the way but Brun was too slow and the snake bit his left foot off.

At the same time Torger’s shield finally shattered and he danced around the beast slicing it until it died. He looked to see Rome dragging Brun away from where the worms were sticking out of the ground. He ran to them and started slicing another one. It took him several strikes to kill it and in the meantime the other one dipped underground again. He ran to Brun and stood guard over him, scanning the horizon in all directions. All three men had gained four mana points and cast Cure 1 on Brun. It stopped the bleeding and brought him to full health, but didn’t regrow his foot.

A minute later the worm burst out of the sand again and Torger ran around it slicing it to death. They sat down and fell asleep.

Brun woke up with a partial foot regrown. His timer was red and stated they had a little over five hours until eject. They walked towards the wreckage and were attacked by another group of three giant sand snakes. This time Torger cast Poison 2 immediately then Rome cast Shield 1’s in front of himself and Brun while Brun punished them with a flurry of Ice 1 spells, doing 23 damage at a time for a total of eleven times until his mana was spent. The two remaining sand snakes dropped back underground while Torger killed the one facing him, but he had taken a bite to his arm. He cast Cure 1’s on himself until he was restored whole. When the two barely alive beasts came out of the ground again, Torger easily sliced them to death.

At the wreckage Rome wrote a letter to Joe and Brun and Torger walked around. The bodies were horribly stinky and ants and scorpions were eating the remains that the sand worms didn’t eat. In the distance to the south Brun saw a shimmer. He called Torger over and they walked to it.

You have found hidden cave #6. Level 22. 45 points for finding a hidden cave.

“Should we fight it? Do we have the time?” asked Brun.

“Yeah we should. Let’s go get Rome.”

When they returned they entered.

All 15 sand worms are dead. Score 0.

Rome touched the score. The time was 17 days, 1 hour. “Jesus, the ship crashed right on top of this hidden cave. No wonder the sandworms kept attacking. They had entered the cave as best as the ship could. All the damage they dealt was from ranged weapons so they got no score for that and they lost tens of thousands of health points.”

They walked west to the final cave, going slowly since Brun was missing a foot.

Cave 16. Level 23.

Rome left a note for the others to see saying it was level 23, meaning it was recommended for a group of ten tyters with level 23. Gary’s squad was screwed.

“Welcome to cave 16. At the conclusion of this cave you will be teleported to the evaluation committee. What is your question?”

“We want to transfer all our points at the conclusion of this cave to squad leader Gary. How do we do that?”

“Unspent points here will roll over to the next training zone or battle planet. It is not recommended to give your rewards to another. If you insist on doing that, you may allow me to randomly boost their stats with your points.”

“Yes do that Elora. And thank you for your help on this planet.”

She looked at Rome like she didn’t know what a compliment was. “Helping is what I do.”

She disappeared and they entered a lit cave. Inside were a hundred leprechauns running around incredibly fast and they began casting Fire 1 and Ice 1 spells at the men. Torger tried to run after one but he stopped after a few steps. He had nowhere near the speed needed to catch them.

The three men blasted the little nuisances with their own level 1 spells, but there were just too many of the guys. Torger told the others “Take off all your clothes.”

They looked at him like he was crazy but trusted him. He tied them all together and made a long whip. He snapped it and the end hit a one foot tall leprechaun throwing it into a wall. He did it over and over again while getting pummeled with spells. Brun and Rome kept casting Cure 1 on him, but it was a losing battle. When Brun was out of mana he ran to the center of the room and slammed his diamond staff into the floor shattering it. Magic pulsed through the room knocking down all the leprechauns. When they stood up they tried to cast spells but their magic no longer worked. Rome ran to the center and smashed his staff too. All the leprechauns fell to the ground and convulsed. The men walked around stepping on them and crushing their heads. When the last one died a green light flashed and they found themselves in a conference room.

“I’ve been here before. This is where Shug brought me when he captured me on Nuva,” Torger said.

Five tyters walked in wearing ebony and moonstone crowns on their heads. They sat down on the other side of the table from where the naked men were standing. The one in the center spoke. “We have much to discuss, humans.” He spat the last word. “Never has another race entered our training zones, and not only did you get there, you defeated it. Now what do we do with you?”

Torger answered “I am Torger, and this is Rome and Brun, of the planet Nuva. We are honorary generals among the tyters, please speak to us accordingly.”

The one in the center scowled but the others looked shocked. One said “These are the humans who defeated Shug? How did you leave Nuva?”

Torger and Rome spoke of Ristopan using his position and influence to get the tyters to send them through the portal on Nuva to go to TZ16 and save Brun. When they finished the one in the middle growled “Those old dwarves have taken too much power to themselves, interfering with our games. I propose we use the humans to replace the dwarves.”

The other tyters looked shocked and Torger asked “What do you mean?”

“They are old and have become ineffective stewards of their realms. I suspect they secretly wish to die, since each one is over four thousand years old. My proposal is we grant them death they wish for, and you three take their places.”

“Wait, we don’t know they want to die. We should ask them first,” said a tyter on the left.

The leader glared at him but said “Very well. Summon them.”

The tyter left the room and Rome asked “What are these training zones? And what is a battle planet?”

The one in the middle waved him off but the other three talked over each other trying to happily answer the question.

“Training zones are where squads go to train.”

“Battle planets are like LK sixteen, what you call Nuva. Squads sufficiently trained go to hunt.”

“There are twenty-three training zones and fifty-one battle planets. There is always one squad on a battle planet.”

“Each squad member has a camera on his or her armor and our home world watches the battles from their point of view.”

“You can also watch squads on the training zones.”

“There is always one squad in a training zone, except TZ eighteen, where you came from. The idiot engineers placed the teleport ring too close to the planet and after a few years it became too dangerous to fly ships through it. We programmed all other teleport rings in the galaxy to only activate to tyter ships. Any other ship flying through a teleport ring gets sent to TZ eighteen, where it will most likely crash into the planet.”

Torger interjected “This whole thing is for tyter entertainment?”

“Yes. We are a civilization far advanced to you humans, but we are warriors at heart. Thousands of years ago we started these interplanetary hunts, but lasers, explosives, flying ships, and plasma guns made the hunts boring. We came up with a point system that has been refined a few times to what you now know it. We want to see hand to hand combat and penalize squads for using ranged weapons. The more points a squad gets on a battle planet, the more honor they get at home.”

“How do the training zones work?” asked Rome.

“They are rated on a difficulty of one to ten. You just came from one that was barely a seven, maybe a six and a half. Depending on the squad score and circumstances, we the council determine if they are battle planet ready or need to move up or down a level of training.”

“How did we rank?” asked Rome.

The tyters looked to the leader. He grumbled but answered “We had no cameras on you, only your battles in the caves. All we have to go by is your questions to Elora and your cave battles.”

He went silent but another picked up. “Based on your questions, you know nothing at all about training zones, a huge handicap. And yet, your score…”

The men tensed but the tyters just looked at the leader. “Knowing nothing about training zones, you scored ninety-two of a hundred.” He paused a long time. “With only a squad of three, you are still battle planet ready, for one of the easier planets. But don’t get your hopes up. You’re going to Nuva.”

“We want to go back to Earth,” blurted Brun.

“That’s not happening. Our people are clamoring to see more of you.”

“What about our friends? Can we go back to them?” asked Torger.

“The other squad on TZ eighteen is struggling in their points. If they survive, we will send them to TZ one. They can work up the ranks and if they become battle planet ready, we will send them to Nuva.”

“What happens when they go to TZ one?” asked Rome.

“Same as all others. Any weapons or armor they gain on eighteen will disappear and they will enter a portal on one with nothing. However they retain all their stats and spells. They have to find the first cave on their own and fight bare handed, then start buying weapons from that planet. Once they pass that, we will send them to a tougher training zone based on their evaluation score.”

The tyter that had left the room re-entered and nodded. The tyters left the room and didn’t return for many hours. When they entered they said “The dwarves have agreed they have lived too long. Nuva will be divided into three sections and you will each rule a section. Your task is to keep a healthy balance of indigenous prey for the tyter prey to feast on and grow in levels. Basically, you will be demigods of the planet, and stewards to make our hunts more fun and interesting.”

As the tyters were leaving Torger asked “What would have happened if we had been ejected from the training zone?”

“An ejection sends you straight to TZ one. It is the most shameful thing that could happen to a warrior. Death is better than losing that much honor.”

Three years later Gary’s squad was sent to Nuva, having taken the ejection after Ristopan sent them a message, his dying act.

The End

I hope you enjoyed the story. I may write another novel one day, and lots of followers on Royal Road would inspire me to try this writing thing again.

The game mechanics in the second half of part three are what I’m leaning towards for a future novel, but I’ve got a lot of work to do refining it.