Last Man in the Death Game

Chapter 4: One Bridge

He would have liked to say he had a plan. What he had was a creek.

Six wolves came through the tall grass like a gray wave. Kael didn't stop to count them. The creek cut across the field between him and the group, narrow and fast, hidden in the grass until the last second. One rotten plank bridge crossed it. It was the only way over.

Kael sprinted for it. His arm throbbed with every step. He hit the near end of the bridge and slapped his palm on the closest post. It was thick, black, and slick with old rain.

Then he made himself stand still. That was the hardest part.

At the warehouse, timing was everything. Drop a pallet too early and it landed on the floor. Drop it too late and it landed on your foot.

If he salvaged now, the bridge would fall with nobody on it. The wolves would jump the gap or run around, and he would be a man with a hammer and a lot of regret. He needed them on the planks. Not near them. On them.

The first wolf hit the bridge. The planks boomed under its paws.

"Salvage," Kael said.

[Salvaging: Bridge Post. 3 seconds.]

[3.]

Two wolves on the bridge. Three. The planks bowed and shook. Kael could see their teeth.

[2.]

Five. Six. They were packed nose to tail, a solid gray line on a bridge as narrow as a hallway.

The first wolf leaped off the end. It hit Kael in the chest and knocked him flat. Its teeth sank into his thigh. [HP: 33 → 19.]

Pain blinded him. The wolf dragged him backward, and his palm slid off the post. [Salvage interrupted.]

"No," Kael gasped. "No, no, no—" He stretched his arm out as far as it would go. His fingertips found the wood.

[Salvaging: Bridge Post. 1 second.]

The wolf shook his leg like a rag. Kael screamed and held on.

[Bridge Post salvaged. Wood Scrap x7.]

The post vanished. The bridge lurched, hung in the air for half a heartbeat, and dropped.

For half a second, the rushing creek was the only sound in the world.

Five wolves fell into the water with a huge, ugly splash. The current took them fast. Kael saw gray shapes tumbling downstream, yelping, paws kicking at nothing. Cradle Wolves, it turned out, did not swim.

Somewhere down the creek, five very unhappy wolves were about to crawl out of the water. But that was a problem for later.

One wolf was left, and it was still chewing on Kael's leg.

He hit it with the hammer. [Damage: 2.] The wolf did not care.

He hit it again. The wolf did not care again.

"Move!" a voice screamed from across the creek. Kael rolled. Something hot and bright flew over his head and struck the wolf in the side. Fire.

[Cradle Wolf. HP: 19 / 45.]

On the far bank, the tall girl stood with her staff raised, white as paper. A green-hooded girl beside her had an arrow drawn back to her ear.

"Hold still!" the green hood shouted. Kael froze. The arrow hissed past his ear and struck the wolf in the throat.

[Cradle Wolf defeated.]

[Assist: EXP +12.]

[Standing: 9,741 / 9,902.]

Kael let his head fall back into the grass. His leg was on fire again. Everything was on fire. [HP: 19.]

"That's seven wolves today," he told the sky. "You could at least send a healer."

He thought about Ricky and the red button. He thought about how easily he could have been just another name in the counter.

Splashing sounded from the creek. They were wading across, the shield boy and the green hood carrying a fourth person between them, a thin guy in a white robe, gray-faced and barely awake. The tall girl got to Kael first.

She dropped to her knees beside him. Her hands were shaking too. "You're crazy," she said. "You know that? You're actually crazy."

"It's been said," Kael wheezed.

"We thought the wolves near the water would be easy," she said. "There were two. Then there were six."

She pulled a roll of cloth from her bag and tied it around his leg. [Bandage: HP 19 → 24.]

The green hood knelt on his other side. Up close, she was younger than he'd thought, maybe nineteen. Her eyes were red. "I'm Mika," she said. "That's Dani. The one with the shield is Oscar. The one bleeding is Jun."

"Kael."

She was clutching her bow like a life rope. Her quiver was empty. The last arrow had been the one in the wolf's throat.

Mika swallowed. "I need to say something. We told you we were full. We weren't."

"I know," Kael said.

He had already forgiven them, somewhere between the bridge and the bandage. Being angry took energy, and he was short on that.

"Oscar said no Scrappers. He said you'd get us killed. I didn't say anything. I just stood there."

Behind her, Oscar stared at the ground. His shield had a new crack across the front, and his face was very red. "I was wrong," he mumbled. "Okay? I was wrong."

Kael thought about saying something noble. What came out was, "Do you guys have any more bandages?"

Dani laughed, a wet, shaky sound. Even Oscar almost smiled.

On the grass, Jun coughed. He looked half dead, but his fingers glowed faintly as he pressed them to his own ribs. [Jun casts Minor Heal.] Then he pointed at Kael, and the light jumped. [HP: 24 → 38.]

"Healer," Jun said weakly. "Uncommon. Out of mana. Also, thank you."

Warm light washed through Kael's leg. It felt like sinking into a hot bath.

"How did you do that?" Dani asked. She was staring at the empty gap where the bridge had been. "You touched it and it just vanished."

"Salvage," Kael said. "It's my whole class. It breaks things down."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

Dani looked at the gap again. "I would've called that class a joke too."

"Everybody did," Kael said. "I'm getting used to it."

He glanced at his bag. Thirty-three wood. Six iron. Not bad for a man with a two-damage hammer.

"What's your Standing?" Mika asked.

"Nine thousand seven hundred and forty-one." He said it flatly. "Out of nine thousand nine hundred and two."

Nobody spoke. Oscar's was 3,900. Dani's was 5,100. Mika's, 6,400. Even Jun, who had almost died twice today, sat above 8,000.

"The Purge takes the bottom five hundred," Dani said slowly. "You're—"

"Inside the line. Yeah. I did the math."

Mika looked at Oscar. Oscar looked at the ground. Then Oscar looked up and said something Kael hadn't expected.

"Party with us. Kills are shared inside a party. Everyone gets Standing from every fight. You'd climb a lot faster than you would alone."

"What do you get out of it?" Kael asked.

"You dropped five wolves in a creek with a bridge," Dani said. "I'd say a lot. And we need someone who can think."

A prompt appeared in front of Kael. [Mika has invited you to a party. Accept?]

He looked at it for a long moment. Ten minutes ago, four strangers had told him they were full. Now they were asking him to join. Being wanted felt strange. It also felt suspicious.

Lena would have told him to say yes and keep one eye open.

And he knew a number when he saw one, and the number was nine thousand seven hundred and forty-one.

"One day," he said. "Then we talk."

[Party formed.]

Jun raised a weak fist. "Welcome to the worst party in Aethon."

Oscar held out a hand. Kael looked at it, then shook it.

Down the creek, a few gray heads bobbed out of the water, shook themselves, and slunk into the reeds. Kael watched them go. Then he opened his skill list to see what Salvage Lv 2 could do. The faded third line was back, no clearer than before. But this time it pulsed once, like a heartbeat, and went still.

A soft chime rang across the whole field. Every head turned up.

Text unrolled across the gray sky, big enough for everyone to read.

[Notice from Warden Zero.]

[Players remaining: 9,902. Population above target.]

[Purge quota updated: 500 → 700.]

Nobody made a sound. Then Jun whispered, "Seven hundred."

All across the field, people cried out. Somebody dropped to their knees.

Kael did the math one more time. It took him no time at all. He was inside the line by more than five hundred places.

But that wasn't the part that bothered him.

He read the second line again. Population above target.

A target. Not a limit. Not a rule. A target, like the number of boxes a shift was supposed to move. Someone, somewhere, had decided how many people were supposed to be alive.

Kael looked up at the gray sky. For a second, he felt sure that something was looking back.

"Okay," he said quietly, to no one. "Then I'll just have to be worth keeping."