“You feel so heavy!” Sam blurted in Pete’s voice.
“Yeah, it’s the opposite with you!” Pete replied, trying desperately to push his thoughts away from the fact that he now had breasts and… other things.
Sam’s body was relatively strong, but much slighter than he was used to. That alone was disconcerting, but then there was also the fact that her vision was slightly different, as was her sense of smell, and even the feel of her smaller fingers around the steering wheel.
But that was just the tip of the iceberg. Pete could also feel the strange power of her Woe Binder class swirling around her and inside her body. He’d presumed that every player would have basically the same heads-up display as he did, but Sam’s display was completely different. There were purple chains running down the bottom of her HUD and skulls of various kinds positioned here and there. There was also a wolf icon on the bottom right of the display, which pulsed slightly, perhaps indicating that Wolfy was currently active as a summoned creature.
There was also a blood-drop display on the bottom left of the HUD, which showed three out of four blood drops filled. Some of the skulls glowed with crimson light, while others appeared to be bleeding blood out of their eyes.
“Jesus!” he barked, turning the RV toward the next obstacle. “It’s like a Megadeth t-shirt in here!”
“It’s called ‘thematic design,’” Sam retorted. “It comes with the Woe Binder class, but you can modify it a little.”
>> ACHIEVEMENT: Body Swap!
Congratulations! You just swapped bodies with a member of your party. Who knows, perhaps in the days ahead this will foster a new kind of empathy for your companion and the opposite sex more generally? Perhaps it will make you kinder, more considerate, more empathetic? Either way, the change is only temporary, so if you want to sneak a look at her boobies, you’d better do it now!
ACHIEVEMENT REWARD: Perception Proficiency +1
She shrugged her shoulders, his shoulders. “How the hell do you do anything in this body? It’s so big and clunky! And how do you… Oh, FUCK!”
“What?” Pete asked.
Pete’s body pointed down at his crotch, wearing a disgusted look.
“I just touched it,” Sam said, practically gagging.
“Touched what?” Pete replied, eyes returning to the road as he tried to make out the obstacle up ahead.
“IT! I touched it!” Sam shouted. “I thought there was something in my lap—your lap—and I went to push it away but…”
Cackling laughter rose from Coop, who was sitting on the center console between the two seats.
“Gross!” Sam hissed.
“It’s not gross!” Pete said.
“How the hell do you get anything done with that thing stashed in your pants all day?”
Pete was about to fire back a retort, but the next obstacle was only seconds away, and he could now see the four red goblin heads that signaled a level four obstacle. The two billowing pillars of fire that burst from the middle of the obstacle area suggested what kind of challenge it would be.
He had just enough time to wonder whether the shielding that covered the RV went all the way underneath as he hit the obstacle, and the vehicle was engulfed in flames. The heat was immediate, as was the blinding light that obscured his vision. Learning a lesson from what he’d observed with the foam incident, Pete shifted his focus to the race map, using that to steer the RV as flames leaped up all around them.
Fortunately, aside from the sudden increase in heat, it seemed that the shield Orin had fitted kept the RV from being damaged. Eyes pinned to the map, Pete suddenly pulled the steering wheel to one side, sending the RV lurching as a green square shot quickly past the map icon that indicated the Winnebago.
Pete corrected, but the RV rocked and fishtailed, its back end flailing about as he struggled to get it under control while still staying within the racetrack boundaries. Flames still roared all around them while Sam—inside Pete’s body—struggled to hold herself in place as the RV swerved.
A moment before the flames disappeared, Pete managed to get the RV under control. The road ahead cleared, and at the same moment, he felt nausea rise from within, accompanied by the sensation of being pulled once more from his body. Or, in this case, pulled from Sam’s body.
The change happened exactly as it had in the first instance, and Pete came back to himself, once more in his own body. Sam didn’t miss a beat as she returned, skillfully steering the RV around a long corner as another obstacle appeared in the distance.
“Let’s never do that again!” she said. “In fact, let’s never talk about it either.”
“Agreed,” Pete said, looking out at the cheering crowd on either side of the track.
>> PLAYER TWO: DISQUALIFIED
One contestant has expired, leaving only two vehicles left in this challenge. As such, the intensity of obstacles will now be increased.
“Why?!” Sam shouted. “Why the hell make it harder if it’s already so difficult that one of us has already died?”
“Because it’s more exciting,” Pete hissed between gritted teeth.
Pete looked down at the race map. He could still see the fire obstacle and could make out the now crossed-out red box sitting in the middle of it. Either the Crown Victoria or the Mini hadn’t made it through. He didn’t want to think about the burning corpse sitting in the husk of a ruined vehicle.
The three feed screens that were hovering in the sky ahead of the RV changed and focused on the footage of the large bald man dangling over the acid vat. While Pete, Sam, and Coop watched, the rope holding the man suspended in the air suddenly snapped, and he plunged into the acid.
The sound of muffled screaming reached them, along with the bubbling and hissing of acid eating away at the poor man’s body. Pete found himself wondering whether that was one of the other contestants’ fathers, brothers, or uncles. It didn’t matter now. They’d lost, and this proved that the Overseer was willing to go through with his threat to kill Pete’s mother.
Once the man stopped struggling, the screen went black and was replaced by screens showing the remaining two victims. Pete focused on the footage of his mother, now no more than a few inches from the surface of the acid vat. It didn’t look like she was crying anymore. Instead, it looked as though she’d resigned herself to her fate. Pete didn’t know whether she knew that this was part of some insane encounter and that he was doing his best to reach her. For all he knew, she had been abducted, strung up in that chair, and lowered to her death without any knowledge of what was going on outside of the chamber she was currently stuck in.
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“We’re past halfway, Pete,” Coop said, pointing a paw at the racing map.
Pete looked down and saw that Coop was right. There was a mini-map in the top left corner of the race map, which showed that more than half of the course had been covered already. They just had to make sure that they made it to his mother without incurring any penalties. If she was dropped even an inch, that would potentially cause her harm.
“What the hell is this now?” Sam said, pointing up at the obstacle they were approaching.
Instead of a red goblin head sitting to the right of the obstacle sign, there was a black skull that was somehow still visible despite the fact that it was night.
[Nero] I cannot say for certain, but typically, skull icons such as this represent mortal threats. I would suggest that the obstacle ahead will prove significantly more dangerous than those that have come before.
Pete spun around, scanning the rear cabin of the RV. Craig and the others seemed to have survived the fire and the specters without difficulty, but they all stared worriedly at him.
“Seems like shit’s gonna get more difficult now, so be ready,” he offered, trying to imbue the words with as much confidence as possible.
Craig nodded, and Pete turned back just as the RV approached the next obstacle. The audience seating stopped before the obstacle, and there were walls on either side of the space with circular holes in them. The walls looked like they were fashioned from old stone blocks that had been dug out of a dungeon or some Pharaoh’s tomb. They looked completely solid, rather than being holographic representations of walls.
The words poison darts came to Pete’s mind along with an image of Indiana Jones brushing away cobwebs as he made his way through an ancient burial chamber. Instinctively, he summoned his Pauper’s Ward and turned back to Craig.
“SHEILD!”
The moment the RV drove into the obstacle area, darts began firing from the walls on either side. Instead of being blocked by the RV’s shielding and the physical walls of the vehicle, the darts flew through space as if they were made from the same ethereal substance as the specters.
A blue glow surrounded Coop, expanding to cover the cabin of the RV and blocking dozens of ethereal darts as they shot left and right. The little ferret was sitting on the console between Pete and Sam, eyes clenched shut as she focused on maintaining the shield.
“PETE?!”
He turned to see the goblins huddling together at the center of the cabin. Darts were flying through the area, and it looked like they’d all been hit several times. Grizzle was hunched over the others, a white shroud of mist spreading out from her arms and apparently absorbing the bulk of the damage the darts were causing. The goblin female’s face was contorted in a grimace of pain, and her hands were shaking as blood poured from wounds on her arms and back.
“Stay with Sam!” Pete shouted, moving out of his seat before the ferret could protest and lunging toward the goblins.
Pete triggered his Blood Overdraft ability, and time seemed to slow as he climbed through the gap between the front seats and out into the rear cabin. His berserker ability wouldn’t offer any protection, of course, and the moment he left Coop’s shield bubble, his Pauper’s Ward burst. But the spell did give him time to make his move.
He was even able to dodge out of the way of two or three darts as he made his way to the goblins, skillfully avoiding taking damage.
>> Dodge Proficiency +1
For every dart he dodged, however, two more struck him in the shoulders, arms, and back. They brought agonizing pain that flooded through Pete’s body, but instead of incapacitating him, with his berserker stance engaged, the pain only gave him more energy and clarity.
He used that energy to pull a medkit from his inventory and slam it into Grizzle’s back, pressing the activation button before dropping the item and pulling another one out of his inventory. As darts continued to fly through the cabin, Pete quickly assessed the wounded goblins. Craig and Torgo had both taken hits, but neither of them was seriously wounded as Grizzle had acted swiftly, shielding them both with her Shroud of Suffering ability.
Pete positioned himself on the opposite side of Grizzle so that her shroud covered Craig and Torgo from one attack while Pete’s back covered the other side. Pain continued to ramp up as Pete’s berserker ability continued to infuse him with clarity and energy.
But there was nothing to fight and a good chance that he’d die the moment the ability wore off, so Pete used a second medkit to boost his own health, recovering all that was lost a moment before another three darts hit him in the back. He pulled his third and final medkit from his inventory, watching as his Blood Overdraft counted down.
More than likely, he’d have to use the medkit on Grizzle to keep her standing, but that would leave him extremely vulnerable when the Blood Overdraft ability ended and he was hit with the full weight of the pain he was currently enduring.
The darts suddenly stopped firing, and Pete tried to take a quick account of his injuries. It was difficult to do with the berserker ability still in play, but Grizzle was barely holding on to consciousness, so there was no other choice to make. He triggered the last medkit, bringing her back to health as Blood Overdraft ended and Pete fell back to the floor, a crippling wave of pain flooding over him.
>> Leadership Proficiency +1
>> Pain Tolerance Proficiency +1
As he lay on the ground, a green hand reached out and grabbed his arm. Pete looked up to see Craig channeling some kind of spell as the pain began to leave Pete’s body. It wasn’t like a medkit, and the healing wasn’t total, but it was enough to drive back the most urgent pain and heal whatever toxins the spectral darts had introduced into his system.
Blinking, Pete looked up at the little goblin.
“Alms of the Empty Hand,” Craig explained with a smile, sweat pouring from his brow. “It allows me to offer a little of my own vitality to heal another.”
“We’ve got more medkits up front if you need them!” Sam called out.
Grunting, Pete got back to his feet. “Keep them,” he said, twisting his neck to one side and walking back to the front of the RV. “There’s probably worse coming up ahead.”
“Thank you, Vault Breaker.”
Pete frowned, turning to see Grizzle standing with tears streaming down from her eyes while Torgo and Craig stood next to her. The goblin was clearly shaken by the encounter. Perhaps she’d never come this close to death before, or maybe the titanic changes she’d endured since the Dominion Ultrimax contest started had suddenly hit her all at once.
“You’re…ah… You’re welcome,” Pete replied with a smile.
Still sobbing, Grizzle buried her head in Craig’s chest.
“What the hell was that about?” Coop asked as Pete slid back into the front passenger seat.
He shrugged. “She got hurt pretty bad there. Just rattled her, I think.”
He leaned over to Sam. “We should split up the rest of the medkits. Make sure we’ve all at least got one spare.”
“Agreed,” she said, eyes still pinned on the road ahead as she did as he suggested.
>> ITEM RECEIVED
Medkit x1
Pete turned around and got a thumbs up from Craig, suggesting that each of them had received a single medkit.
“We’re over halfway, but there’s no telling how many more of these obstacles we need to get through,” he called out. “So don’t use the medkits unless you really need to. Obviously, don’t wait until it’s too late either.”
Craig nodded, and Pete turned around and checked the racing map again. He could still see a green box up ahead, signaling that the other driver was still in the race. Whoever they were in that car, they’d gone through the dart obstacle unscathed, and the fact that they were further ahead suggested that they’d also survived one or two other obstacles that the RV hadn’t encountered yet.
The RV couldn’t go any faster, though. Pete just had to hope that the other driver messed up soon. It wasn’t a pleasant thought to be wishing harm on a fellow human, but his mother’s life was in the balance.
“Next obstacle,” Sam said, narrowing her eyes. “Shit! It’s another bunch of specters.”
“What about shields?” Coop said, turning to Pete. “We didn’t try that last time. Maybe our shields will keep the specters out?”
Pete nodded. “Okay, let’s give it a go. How big can you make your main shield?”
“Large enough to cover the front cabin and maybe half a foot into the back,” Coop replied.
“Hurry!” Sam said as the RV closed on the obstacle.
Pete whistled, drawing Craig’s attention. He waved the goblin forward. “Get in here. We’re gonna see if Coop’s shield can hold back the specters.”
Craig didn’t need any more information. He grabbed his goblin companions and ran toward the front cabin.
“Need to get in real close!” Pete urged. “Hell, sit on my lap if you have to.”
The next two seconds were spent in a tangle of limbs and grunts, with elbows jabbing Pete in the side as the trio of goblins climbed into the front cabin and Coop struggled to get on top of the group.
“Do it now!” Sam shouted.
A swell of blue light surrounded the group as Coop summoned her shield. At the same time, Pete triggered his Pauper’s Ward and watched as they passed through the obstacle markers and drove directly into a group of specters. These were larger than the others they had encountered and were of a bright pink and mauve color, more than the darker purple they’d seen before.
With no room to move to either side, the RV passed right through the thickest cluster of specters, and Pete felt a familiar sense of nausea as the strange, ethereal creatures passed right through Coop’s shield and his own as if they weren’t even there. The nausea was soon replaced by a sensation of liquefying, as though Pete’s body was being melted like wax.