Middle Triumvarate B1 C4 (Patreon)

It's 2:30 AM for me right now, but the bug hit and I had to finish the chapter. I haven't been able to get a lot of time to work on this story recenlt,y but I'm organizing my schedule much better thiese last few weeks, so I'm going to be setting aside dedicated time for it. No specific schedule for these chapters, but aiming for at least one per weekend, possibly into early morning Monday like this one if my brain does the stuff at weird hours. Anywaym hope y'all enjoy!

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The world suddenly had game-like elements to it, but if there was a power or entity out there listening to flag triggering statements, they skipped Alex’s. He didn’t ‘come right back’ as he said he would, but he didn’t die horrifically off-screen either. A few of the living cannonball monsters managed to detect him and threw themselves forward like, well, cannonballs, but they didn’t seem to be able to aim very well. With a few close calls and a little experimentation Alex figured out that the monsters had a variety of ranges, but there was a maximum that only one of them was able to see at. After figuring that out he stayed far enough away to scoot around the horde and made it to the next room. The rest of the group couldn’t see him after he inched around the corner into the next section of the exhibit, but there wasn’t any screaming or shouting immediately after he turned out of sight.

“There isn’t anything moving in here!” He called back to them, “I can see the sledge hammer, I’m going to break the glass and grab it.”

“It’s not regular glass!” Amelia called back, “You’re going to have to hit it a lot!”

“Guys, we need to not shout.” Maeve scolded. Since she wasn’t shouting Alex couldn’t hear her which meant she was really only talking to Amelia. “The cannonballs can’t hear us but we have no idea what else might be around.”

“Oops.” Amelia clapped a hand over her mouth. “You’re right, sorry.”

“That cannonballs getting really close to the door,” Scarlett warned them, pointing at one that had landed near the opening. “I’ll keep and eye on it. Ed, are you still watching the other one?”

“Yup, it’s still in the corner.”

They managed to make out the sound of something smacking against a hard object repeatedly over the noises made by the cannonballs slamming into walls and floors. Suddenly there was a crack followed by muffled curses, then faster thwacks until they heard glass shatter. A few seconds later Alex appeared in the far opening with an old sledgehammer and no pole. He gingerly made his way back over to them, being extra careful to avoid being “seen”. He froze a few feet from the next doorway, staring down at the cannonball that was just sitting there.

“What do I do?”

“Trying jumping over it?” Scarlett ventured.

Maeve shook her head violently. “Hell no, they move too fast when they’re launching. If he’s mid air he’ll have nowhere to go.” She glanced between him and the monster. “Can you wait it out?”

He glanced over his shoulder. “Maybe? It depends on the rest of them not coming this way. There’s also one of them that hasn’t moved since we got here, so I don’t know how long this one will take.”

“How do you know it’s a monster then?”

“It’s sitting in a dent.”

“Right,” Maeve took a deep breath, ignoring the byplay. “Here’s what we’re going to do, I’ll get close and lure that one away from the door, then Alex can come through and we can take out the two on this end.” She started creeping forward. “Alex, what was the farthest range you found again?”

A hand grabbed her arm and jerked her to a stop. “Wait!”

She froze and looked back.

“No offense, but I’m faster than you and can probably take more of a hit if we get unlucky.” Ed said, pulling Maeve back from the monster. “I’ll lure it, you keep an eye on the other one.”

“…Okay.”

“What is that max range, though Alex?”

“The one that almost got me was about seven feet, the rest that saw me were less than that.” He answered.

Ed inched forward and stuck his foot out right around seven feet from the cannonball as more crashes came from behind Alex. The monster didn’t respond, so Ed continued moving incrementally closer with one foot outstretched. Maeve watched the angles and pulled the other two girls off to the side so they wouldn’t be in the line of fire. Less than six feet from the monster it reacted to Ed’s presence. It rotated in place as fast as a striking snake and exploded into motion, tearing up the flooring in its wake. Ed jerked his foot up and watched, pale-faced, as the projectile passed just under the sole of his shoe.

Maeve had pulled the girls farther away from the other cannonball that was still keeping itself trapped in a corner, and watched as the traveling one ricocheted off of and got lobbed in their general direction. Once again, the adrenaline had everything moving in slow motion, and she could just make out the bore hole that she’d started thinking of as the cannonballs’ “face” turn their direction. Without really thinking about it she slammed her arms into Scarlet and Amelia’s shoulders and pushed them to the ground.

“Move! Move!” She screamed, immediately scrambling away as soon as she hit the floor. When they couldn’t see anything to attack, the cannonballs threw themselves around randomly, but as soon as they saw a person they launched themselves at high speed with almost no delay, they had to get up, they had to move the angles so that it didn’t-

A shadow passed over her and a sudden clanging and ringing noise of metal hitting metal startled her even more as she dug her fingers into the carpet to try and get away. Almost mad with panic she groped at her side, at least trying to pull Amelia away if nothing else. Her back slammed up against the bottom of a small display, Amelia grasped in her arms.

“Maeve! Maeve! Calm down, we’re okay!”

Looking around wildly, it took her a second to realize Amelia was the one talking to her. When she could finally focus her gaze on her friend, she saw her pointing in the direction they’d just been in. Standing there was Alex, with a look of panic on his face that matched Maeve’s. In his hand was the sledgehammer and on the ground at his feet was a smashed piece of metal.

Gasping with relief, Maeve crushed her best friend to her chest and tried not to cry. “Fuck!”

“It’s okay.” Amelia gently patted her arm, “It’s okay.”

“Someone keep an eye on the other one!” Maeve sobbed, immediately losing the battle with her tears. “Scarlet?”

“I can see it, it hasn’t moved.” Ed called out, “I’ve got Scarlet too.”

“I’m good! Got a little rug burn but otherwise uninjured.”

Slowly, on shaky legs and with Amelia’s help, Maeve got back to her feet. The five of them gathered together farther away from the closest monster and Maeve grabbed Amelia and Scarlett into a tight hug, still crying a little.

“So much for this System thing messing with our emotions.” Scarlet muttered.

“Shut up. We almost died, don’t try and shortchange this.”

Scarlet reached around Amelia and patted Maeve’s shoulder. “I’m not trying to make light of the danger, just using humor to fight back the panic. It really doesn’t feel like something’s making me panic less, it’s like a horse galloping in my chest right now. Alex really saved our bacon.”

At that reminder Maeve looked up and found the two guys. “You two get in here, we’re a team and hugs are for everyone.”

They had a quick group hug and Maeve wiped her eyes as they separated. “Okay, that was too close. We need to be smarter about this if we’re going to keep fighting monsters.”

“Are we going to have a choice?” Ed asked.

Alex pulled Amelia in close, tucked under his chin, and wrapped his arms around her, “I don’t think we will.”

Before she could get started on brainstorming up ways to be smarter and safer when dealing with the cannonballs, a prompt appeared, derailing Maeve’s train of thought.

__

You meaningfully contributed in defeating:

1x Animated Cannonball

You receive: 5 XP

__

“I just got experience for defeating an Animated Cannonball.” Alex announced, his eyes unfocused as he looked at his own screen.

“I got some for ‘meaningfully contributing’.” Scarlett added.

“Me too, five points.” Maeve mentally dismissed the screen. “Anyone get anything else?”

“I got twenty for killing it.”

Everyone else got a contributed message instead of a ‘defeated’ one, and they all got five experience for that. No one got any other information, and the System didn’t respond to any questions Maeve asked for explanations about experience or beating enemies.

After getting no response to her questions, Maeve turned back to her team. “Right, guess we’ll figure that out later. The System encouraged us to get stronger, and while they’re dangerous, these Animated Cannonballs have been simple so far. My recommendation is that we pick them off one by one and farm them. We can switch who gets the hits in with the hammer to try and spread the experience around.”

“Two questions.” Ed pointed at the sledgehammer, “That’s a literal museum piece, can it hold up to that kind of damage? Also, and again no offense, but can you guys swing that fast enough to kill those things?”

“I sure as hell can,” Scarlett insisted, looking pissed.

Ed held his hands up in front of himself. “I’m not saying you can’t, I’m asking. Maeve just said we need to be smart, and being smart means asking all the questions ahead of time so we don’t get fucked.”

“I’m pretty sure it died in the first hit,” Alex volunteered, “The follow ups were me freaking out.”

“Maeve and I aren’t body builders or historical reenactors who run around in armor and hit each other with swords, but we aren’t spring chickens either, and Scarlett does boxing and MMA. We can swing a sledgehammer a few times.”

“We’re going to be rotating who has the hammer which should keep anyone from getting too tired.” Maeve added.

“Great. Additional third question, do we need to do this?” Ed pointed down the exhibit, “Specifically, do we need to do this now? We’re headed this way because that’s the way to the parking lot and that’s where my car is with weapons and armor, which is a normal thing for me but feels weird when there’s actual monsters to kill all of a sudden. Alex proved we can sneak around them, why not do that, get better gear, and come back?”

Amelia, Scarlet, and Alex looked thoughtful, but Maeve shook her head. “Too risky. I get what you’re saying,” She rushed out, keeping Ed from interrupting her, “But it’s the same as why I said not to shout, we have no idea what else is out there. If we sneak past them and there’s more monsters in that direction, we’d be caught in between a rock and hard place. If we take out the cannonballs, we at least have a clear line of retreat.”

“Maeve, I love you, but I am extra glad on top of that that you’re here right now.” Amelia pulled her boyfriend’s arms off of her and stepped forward for a quick hug. “Not to put myself down, but I never would have thought about ‘a clear line of retreat’, and you’re completely right.”

“Thanks.” Maeve twisted her head to find the cannonball that had been in the corner and pointed at it. “That one is still all alone, so we take that one out first. Ed, you good to take the hammer this time?”

“Yeah,” He reached out to receive it from Alex and tested the heft. “And Amelia’s right, thats some really good thinking you’ve got going. Let’s smash these cannonballs, get some experience, and make it to the car to suit up.”

Maeve nodded absently as she thought over all the possibilities, trying to make the next time they attacked one of the monsters safer than the last, and the same for the next after that. She deliberately didn’t mention the dark thoughts that flitted through her mind as Ed listed out their limited plans. There was no way to know if the car was still outside the museum. Some of the messages had included something about geography changing, they didn’t know if they were still in the same place, or if the parking lot had gotten transported off on its own. Even assuming the car was still there, after they got to it, then what? The System’s messages hinted at some really bad shit all over the rest of the world, so what the hell were the five of them going to do?

She shook her head to dismiss the worrying and focused on the moment. There was nothing she could do to change the big picture, so she had to focus on what she could do. “The first thing to address is placement. Alex wasn’t in the best spot for our first pull, but there wasn’t anything he could do about that. Now that we’ve all got better freedom of movement, we need to figure out what our positioning is going to be like. We want the person with the hammer to be able to move before the cannonball lands…”