LevelUP: an 8-bit novel by Micah Joel. Author's definitive online edition.
Support independent authors! Scroll to the end for details.
< back | ⬆️ | next >3-8: Game Over
INVENTORY:
* TROPHY 1
* TROPHY 3
* TROPHY 5
* MAGIC BOOMERANG
Skills:
(None)
Free-fall has a way of slowing time. The drop from the platform stretches out long enough to count the seconds.
All the same, it also seems to pass in a blink. Max hurls the boomerang downward with all his might, which slows him only a little. It rebounds off the floor and back to his hand, which slows him a bit more. He hurls it down even harder, again and again, managing a total of four throws before the ground rushes up to meet him.
The impact of landing rips through his body like a shockwave. Everything flashes red for a second, then his HUD lights up with a row of hearts, only two of them filled in. At least the effort to saved him from a game-ending splatter.
Meanwhile, Hemera wields staff again, and for good measure, Max’s power sword too. She flamboyantly whirls both weapons, one in each hand.
Max casts the boomerang toward her. He’s getting the hang of this. It’s a good throw, his most forceful one yet, and it looks like it will snag the troublesome staff away from Hemera. But before it gets close, lightning leaps from the staff, freezing the still-whirling boomerang in the air. Hemera, smiling, points the power sword at Max and steps forward.
“You said that thing only works if you hold the majority of the trophies,” Max says.
“Did I?” Hemera says. “Oops. Guess I was wrong.”
Inventory. No weapons left. Fresh out of skills too. He’s unarmed and holding three items of value that an angry and heavily armed woman will stop at nothing to obtain. A globule of black slime drips down from above, just missing his head. It spreads into a flat disk the size of a saucer.
Hemera takes another step. The boomerang maintains distance from her, moving forward as she does. Unless Max does something now, he’s going to get julienned before Hemera even reaches him. She takes another step.
Desperate times, desperate measures. Max pulls one of the trophies out of inventory, and with a longing gaze, hurls it away from both himself and Hemera. Risky move, but it works: Hemera hesitates. Her eyes shift back and forth between the easy win of the abandoned trophy and the more satisfying win of eliminating Max.
While Hemera’s ponders, Max makes his move. He dives forward, thrusting his hand into the electrical arc around the boomerang. It burns like fire, and he loses another heart, but it works. The boomerang is his again. He whirls around and throws, catching Hemera unawares, and this attack succeeds. The staff and boomerang both return to his hands.
Hemera breaks into a sprint. Max takes aim and hurls the boomerang again. It strikes Hemera in the side, but she the power sword blunts the impact. The boomerang glances off, knocking loose a few of her inventory items, including one trophy, before completing its loop. When all is done, Max has gained his trophy back, as well as one of hers. That makes four. Only one more to go.
Max presses his attack, moving toward Hemera while she scrambles to recover her sword, but he nearly steps in a growing pool of black on the floor. “I’m not going to let you do this,” Max says.
Another throw, and Hemera squares off, as if to catch the boomerang in her bare hands, but just before impact, she disappears in a streak.
Ugh, teleporting. Where did she—?
The swish of a sword whistling through the air tips Max off, and he dodges hard to the right just before the blade slices through the air where his head was. When it comes down to close combat, even a magic boomerang’s not much use against a sword.
Max surges forward to avoid the sword’s reach but nearly runs headlong into it when Hemera teleports directly into his path. Max contorts his body to the breaking point, but the blade still grazes his arm, taking his last heart. His HUD is left with a row of hearts, completely empty. Zero health. At this point, a hangnail would drop him negative, ending the game.
Max hurls the boomerang to clear the way ahead of him and runs after it. This prevents Hemera from teleporting into his path again. For a slim moment, he has some distance between them.
Now what? If he could distract her again, he could take the last trophy. Still might not matter—he’d be left with the decisive advantage. And she won’t be distracted by the same trick again. There’s got to be some way of—
Hemera materializes close to him, though out of sword range, as long as she doesn’t make any sudden moves. Maybe it’s a glitch in the teleport rendering, but when she moves, there’s one rectangular piece of her armor that lags just a tiny bit behind. If so, it’d be the first thing in this world that rendered at less than photorealistic resolution. It resembles a giant stuck pixel at her midriff.
“You surprise me,” Hemera says. “I’m going to be just the tiniest bit sad once you’re gone. Defeating you has been one of the most satisfying experiences of my life.”
Max casually shifts sideways, and eyes the black slime, now between the two of them.
“You surprise me too,” Max says.
“How’s that?” Hemera asks, suddenly interested.
Max hurls the boomerang in her general direction, but it goes wide. Her eyes flicker after it, just for a second. Max lunges forward like a fencer, ducks under the vicious sword chop Hemera attempts, and jams his thumb into the stuck pixel on Hemera’s armor. Her eyes go wide. Her armor blinks between red and white for a second as she realizes her vulnerability. Then the returning boomerang wallops her from behind, knocking her face first into the black puddle.
Hemera screams, and all her inventory scatters around her. Max uses the boomerang to collect the last trophy. Her screams abruptly stop as the slime consumes her avatar.
He’s done it. He’s defeated Hemera and obtained the entire set of trophies.
Another avatar appears, fuzzed out and pixely for an instant, then as clear as all reality in this world.
“Dad…”
ℹ️ Support the author by purchasing your own professionally formatted paperback or Kindle version of this novel. Also, subscribe to get 3 free books.
Got feedback? 👍👎 All humans welcome to send email to my first name @micahjoel.info — put "8bitnovel" somewhere in the subject.
Copyright 2018, 2019 Micah Joel. All rights reserved.