Glitch Book Four Read online

  Melissa was running around the cave with a few rockets on her heels. She was trying to get away from them instead of employing Telekinesis for some reason. She might have run out of mana. She was also trying to remove a stimulator from her bag as she ran. Her HP seemed to be terribly low.

  Flynn was following the girl, shooting down the missiles after her. Judging from the medical robot tagging along behind the guy and healing him, he was in bad shape too.

  I tried to use Telekinesis on the rockets but to no avail. They were too far off. I ran after my teammates then. Yet before I could get within the range of Telekinesis, the two rockets slammed into the ground near Melissa––the girl managed to survive the resultant explosions––and the other two were destroyed in the air by Flynn’s precise shots.

  There was a swishing sound from the direction of the Raid Boss. I whirled around the see a new bunch of rockets dash out of the metal container. Like the last time, they split into three groups for each player and darted toward us.

  This time I managed to get all the missiles expect one under control. The projectile that had evaded my mental grip exploded nearby, Shield I had activated a moment earlier bearing the brunt of the explosion.

  Yet Reaper’s power shield withstood the attack again. We had to redirect more rockets toward the Raid Boss. I couldn’t do it on my own. What the heck was Melissa doing?

  I scanned the cave, seeking the girl. She was at the far end of the enormous room. The girl was desperately running around, dodging and wearing in order to present a more difficult target. She used Shield from time to time and it instantly got destroyed by a rocket exploding nearby. Melissa hadn’t been trying to employ Telekinesis at all for some unknown reason.

  At the opposite end of the room, I noticed Flynn. He was running in circles, shooting at the missiles after him, destroying some of them, and some not. The medical robot was constantly at his side, recovering his character’s HP.

  Everything failed to go according to plan. Dangit!

  Reaper ejected the third––and the last––rocket barrage. This time I managed to redirect all the projectiles from the bunch that was after me. Once they slammed against Reaper’s shield and exploded, it disappeared. Here we go!

  After using a vigor to restore my mana, I looked around. Melissa and Flynn were trying to get away from the rockets after them. My teammates didn’t even get aware that the power shield was no longer protecting the Raid Boss.

  I burst into a run, trying to catch up with Melissa. Once within the range of Telekinesis, I took control of the rockets after the girl and redirected them toward Reaper. The huge monster didn’t even flinch when the projectiles exploded on impact. Yet his HP visibly shrank.

  I glanced to the left in time to see Flynn deal with the last missile after him. After that, Reaper wasted no time starting for us, bringing his machine guns up.

  Finally, I caught up to Melissa and ran on alongside her.

  “Why don’t you carry out the plan?” I inquired. “Why don’t you use Telekinesis on the rockets?”

  “Think I didn’t try?” She sputtered. “Doesn’t work! There’s too many of them! Can’t focus on all of them at once! And I always lose my concentration when I get hurt!”

  “All right, I’ll see what I can do.”

  The girl didn’t bother to answer me.

  There was a distinctive sound behind us indicating that Reaper was about to let loose with his machine guns. Melissa and I ran in the opposite directions.

  I was deep in glum thought. We failed to carry out the plan because redirecting Reaper’s projectiles had turned out to be an extremely difficult task. I seemed to have gotten used to taking control of Reaper’s missiles. But Melissa couldn’t keep up with me.

  I wondered whether we would still be able to bring the Raid Boss down before he mutated if I tried to manipulate some of the projectiles after the girl.

  Flynn’s warning shout wrenched me back to the moment. I activated Shield and glanced over my shoulder to see what the matter was.

  As it turned out, Reaper had just ejected an acid ball from his mouth. It collided with the power dome, breaching it, and dashed past narrowly missing me.

  Although I had been spared, the greenish smoke trailing from the ball enshrouded me. I felt as if I was burning alive. My vision got all blurred and my movement speed got reduced. It was the consequences of the debuff placed on my character by the greenish smoke that had enveloped me.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Flynn ran dangerously close up to the Raid Boss, blasting away at the mutant with his shotgun. Finally, he succeeded in distracting Reaper from me. The Raid Boss left me be and headed toward Flynn, the two big machine guns belching out bursts of gunfire.

  I was still suffering the pain as my HP reduced rapidly. I wrenched a stimulator from a pocket on my vest and used it. The pain ceased and my character’s health replenished all but to the full.

  Still, my HP almost instantly began vanishing again, for the debuff was still active. The pain racked my body once more.

  I used up five to six stimulators, restoring my HP and relieving the pain before the debuff finally wore off.

  The Raid Boss would discharge his machine guns and spit out acid balls a few times more as we would run away from him, successfully avoiding being severely wounded.

  Finally, Reaper came to a stop at the center of the cave and lowered his guns. I ran up to Melissa and stood at her side. The girl made a face at me and fixed her gaze on the mutant. His rocket launcher popped open, ejecting the projectiles in droves.

  A whole lot of rockets flew toward Melissa and me. The girl even took a step backward, dropping from my range of vision as if she was about to run away. Once the missiles were within twenty or so yards of us, my Telekinesis kicked in.

  The most of the them got affected by it. Having turned around in a wide arc, they flew backward toward the Raid Boss. Yet the remaining five or so projectiles were still dashing our way. And I couldn’t do jack about that, for I was already exerting all of my mental strength.

  All I could do now was just helplessly watch the five or so rockets approach and hope I would survive the resultant explosions. Which was highly unlikely.

  And then Melissa finally snapped out of it and joined in. She took a step forward, coming back into view and standing at my side. She added to Telekinesis, taking control of the remaining projectiles and guiding them toward the Raid Boss.

  When all the rockets we were controlling smashed into Reaper’s shield, the Raid Boss even disappeared from sight due to a series of multiple resultant explosions. Once the smoke dissipated, we saw that his power shield had been obliterated.

  “We did it!” Melissa exclaimed looking at me with her shiny eyes.

  A booming sound of an explosion came from behind. I looked around to see Flynn being chased by a bunch of projectiles. Unlike the girl, he was far from being excited. The rockets slammed into the ground near him one after another, showering the guy with clods of dirt.

  Melissa and I exchanged glances and took off to lend a hand to our teammate. Once within the range of the Telekinesis, we redirected the missiles toward the Raid Boss. He did take damage but didn’t even flinch.

  The Raid Boss discharged two more rocket barrages. Melissa and I repeated the trick with Telekinesis, redirecting the projectiles to slam them into Reaper. As for Flynn, he had deployed his turrets next to the huge mutant after we had destroyed his power shield with the first barrage.

  All of that inflicted good damage on the Raid Boss.

  Then Reaper stamped on the turret guns, pulverizing them to nothingness, and headed toward us. We instantly scattered.

  I noticed that Melissa’s mood lifted. Although things didn’t work out as planned at first, our efforts eventually started to pay off. Unlike her, I wasn’t all that excited since there was little chance that we would be able to finish the monster off before he mutated into a berserk.

 
After some time, Reaper came to a stop in the middle of the floor, getting ready for the third––and the final––rocket attack. We acted the way we had the last time. Melissa and I destroyed Reaper’s shield with his first rocket barrage. After that, Flynn instantly deployed his turret guns. And then Melissa and I used Telekinesis to redirect the second and the third rocket barrages back to the Raid Boss.

  True to form, he took damage but managed to survive the resultant explosions. He had about twenty percent of HP left. I remembered Flynn saying that if the Raid Boss had more than fifteen percent left when he began to turn into a berserk, then we would be as good as dead.

  “So what’s now?” I inquired glancing at him.

  “We’re dead,” Flynn put bluntly.

  Reaped started to transform.

  Chapter three

  The Raid Boss dropped both his machine guns as well as his rocket launcher and began to grow, his limbs elongating, each arm transforming into a long nasty blade. It took the monster about ten seconds to mutate into a berserk.

  We just stood still for a couple of moments, eyeing the monster, which was way more dangerous-looking than he had before. We were in no hurry to aggro him. Reaper seemed to take his time as well as if he was trying to decide which player he should take out first.

  I was racking my brain trying to figure out a way of bringing that monster down.

  It was Flynn who opened fire first. He was well aware that Reaper would slay Melissa and me in no time flat, what with us having low HP and wearing light armor, so he had decided that he should do the tanking.

  When the buckshot ripped into the monster’s muscular body, Reaper burst into a run after Flynn. Being in a Berserk mode, the Raid Boss moved extremely fast indeed. He reached the guy in a few huge leaps and began swinging his blades, catching the guy on his torso.

  This was when Melissa and me overcame our initial bewilderment and jumped into action. We used Stasis on the monster simultaneously. Even being subjected to the double Stasis field, Reaper didn’t stop but just got slowed down somewhat.

  After a few seconds, the Raid Boss cleared the Stasis field and dashed after Flynn. As Reaper was trying to catch up with the fleeing guy, I would use various psi-powers of mine, trying to work out a strategy against the monster.

  As it turned out, the Raid Boss was immune to the most of my psi-powers. The only skill that had a visible effect on the huge monster was Stasis.

  After delivering a series of blows, Reaper finished Flynn. Neither his medium armor nor his medical robot could keep him alive for long.

  Once Flynn was dealt with, Reaper dashed toward Melissa. The girl activated Acceleration. Yet he was still gaining on her. Once within striking range, the mutant brought his blades up, about to slash and pierce the girl.

  I employed Stasis on him, arresting his movements, and commencing firing my revolvers at the monster. Reaper left the girl alone and turned toward me.

  It took him a couple of moments to get out of the Stasis field. Once outside, he darted toward me at great speed. I utilized Acceleration. Sure, even with this psi-power active I couldn’t get away from the mutant, but at least it would take him a bit longer to catch up to me.

  When he was too close, I used Teleportation to materialize a few yards farther from the mutant. Yet he covered the gap between us in no time. Only three or so yards separated us now.

  I tried to use Stasis on him but to no avail. I had used up all my mana. Totally forgot to check my HUD after the monster mutated.

  The crackle of gunshots came to my left. It was Melissa firing at the mutant. But Reaper paid her no mind. Her gun probably did too little damage to him so she failed to aggro the Raid Boss.

  As I tried to withdraw a vigor on the run, Reaper caught up with me and swung his blades. Searing pain exploded in my body as I felt something penetrate me. Then everything went dark.

  The Spectator mode switched on. I saw Melissa firing away at the huge mutant. When Reaper turned, I spotted the body of my character impaled on one of his blades. He flicked his arm to shake the body off the blade. It slid off the blade and flopped onto the ground with a sickening wet sound.

  Reaper turned toward Melissa and burst into a run. The girl wasted no time racing away. He was after her only for a couple of moments and then suddenly came to a halt. Melissa didn’t glance back so she didn’t get aware that the Raid Boss stopped moving and continued to run away.

  As for me, being in the Spectator mode, I could look in any direction I wanted to. So I regarded the mutant to find out what Reaper was going to do.

  The Raid Boss opened his mouth and let go with a tremendous roar. Glancing over her shoulder, Melissa spotted the mutant standing still dozens of feet from her. The girl stopped and opened fire.

  Totally ignoring the slugs tearing into his body, Reaper remained immobile. I spied acid saliva begin to gather in his gaping mouth. One of the slugs hit true, zipping right into the mutant’s maw and inflicting critical damage on the Raid Boss. His HP bar visibly shrunk.

  As I watched all this, I came up with a strategy of sorts. It was pretty good and even might work. If Melissa survived for long enough for Flynn and me to get revived, then we could bring the mutant down.

  Finally, Reaper ejected an acid ball from his mouth. It dashed forward toward Melissa. The girl was ready for this so she managed to get out of its way in time. Reaper burst into a race after the girl.

  As I watched Melissa play, I got aware that she was a good player. She would slow the mutant down with Stasis and use Acceleration, firing at him all the while. I wondered if she would be able to hold out long enough for Flynn to revive. Since he had been whacked before I had, he would resurrect first.

  Only then did I realize that I could write a message to Flynn. Taking advantage of it, I told the guy about my strategy. Then I reflected on whether I should tell Melissa about that and came to the conclusion that I shouldn’t write a message to her at the moment so as not to distract the girl from her dealing with the Raid Boss. Instead, I asked Flynn to relay the news to the girl later on.

  “Will do,” Flynn texted.

  After that, I went over my plan in my mind once more. So we would have to constantly take turns to aggro the Raid Boss, for none of us was able to withstand his attacks for long, and inflict critical damage on him.

  Since his vulnerable spot was in his mouth, I would have to wait for him to open it. To get too close to Reaper when he was about to eject an acid ball was extremely dangerous, for sure. Nonetheless, it was exactly what I was going to do.

  So when Reaper opened his mouth, I would have to use Stasis on him, run up to the mutant, and shoot him in the gaping mouth. Since he would be slowed down by Stasis, the saliva in his mouth would be gathering more slowly than it usually did. I would have about ten seconds before the mutant ejected an acid ball.

  Being in the Spectator mode and watching Melissa fight the Raid Boss had enabled me to learn something. Right before Reaper spat out an acid ball, there always was a faint flash of greenish light in his mouth. It indicated that acid would erupt from the maw in a moment.

  So when I noticed the greenish flash, I would have to use Telekinesis to get away from Reaper and avoid being hit by his acid spit.

  It was my plan in a nutshell.

  Eventually, Flynn got revived. Melissa had actually been able to hold out against the Raid Boss all on her own. Attagirl! She had pulled it off!

  Unlike surviving at night, when getting killed and then reviving during a Raid Boss fight, a player didn’t have to retrieve his stuff from the body of their previous avatar since they instantly received all the armor and weapons on their revival.

  So once Flynn was back, he wasted no time assisting the girl in dealing with Reaper.

  I watched Melissa and Flynn taking turns to aggro the Raid Boss and checked the log from time to time. There was a countdown in the log, showing the remaining time for my revival.

  All I c
ould do at the moment was watch my teammates dealing with the Raid Boss and hope that they wouldn’t get slain. Melissa and Flynn mostly just ran away from the mutant, hardly ever doing any damage to him. They just stalled, waiting for me to revive and begin carrying out my plan.

  Eventually, I got resurrected. And instantly jumped into action, my revolvers barking and spitting out slugs. Reaper was after Flynn at the moment. I used Stasis on the mutant to slow him down and then Melissa and I opened up on him.

  When Reaper cleared the Stasis field, he left Flynn be and spun around to face me. Activating Acceleration, I tore off. Yet he was gaining on me. The pounding of his feet on the hard ground was getting closer and closer. Once within blade’s reach of my character’s body, it would bring his appendage-swords into play.

  My teammates didn’t let up on the heavy gunfire, but the Raid Boss was still on my heels. If they didn’t manage to distract him from me, then I would soon croak.

  The pounding of feet behind me abated for some reason. I glanced back to see the Raid Boss surrounded by a Stasis field created by Melissa. But it didn’t check the huge mutant for long.

  Once out of the field, Reaper bent his knees for a jump. Then he launched himself in the air. He dashed through the air at impressive speed. I had barely managed to run away when the mutant landed at the spot where I was a second earlier.

  The ground shook. Seemed like I wasn’t a safe distance from him, for a debuff named Stunning was placed on my character. My movement speed got reduced and my head began to spin as an awful dizziness overcame me. I was barely able to retain my balance. Moreover, due to the debuff, I couldn’t employ my psi-powers.

  The Reaper was inevitably advancing on me and I couldn’t do jack to get away from him, what with my movement speed reduced to a crawl.

  Then he suddenly turned away from me and dashed away. Melissa had just aggro’d the huge mutant and saved my life. Bless her!

  But the girl had a hard time trying to stay alive herself. She would use Stasis on the mutant to slow him down and employ Acceleration to boost her speed. She actually managed to keep the Raid Boss at bay for some time. Yet it was obvious that he would catch up with her sooner or later. Flynn blasted away at the monster, but Reaper seemed to be eager to get the girl first.