a low blow for a computer.” He wheezed as the troll waded into the attack. It was tall, hairy in all the wrong places, and he thought it was the ugliest creature he’d ever seen. He stood, swayed on his feet, and tried to time his duck and sideways roll and barely made it. The troll smacked into the wall at high speed and bellowed in pain.
That gave Justin an idea. “Get out of the way!” he yelled at the door and he began to run. He tried approaching a different wall first to see if his attacker would fall for the same trick twice. Unfortunately, it was marginally smarter than that and he had to edge into range again before it would swing at him.
The pounding on the door had stopped and he could only hope that the others kept their composure and didn’t get found by a patrol. He made a game of getting in close, rolled around the troll’s feet, and sometimes nicked it with his sword. The giant health bar over its head told him he did little real damage, but that wasn’t his goal. Slowly but surely, they moved closer to the door.
FANCY FOOTWORK, LEVEL 3 flashed on the screen.
“You should try out for Riverdance,” the AI told him.
“Start the bagpipes, toaster.”
Now for the risky part. Justin lunged, pretended to overbalance, and pulled back sharply, only to sprawl on the floor while his sword clattered away. He crawled toward it but tried not to go too fast, and the troll bellowed and began to run toward him. Only at the last moment did he throw himself between his attacker’s legs.
The massive creature pounded into the door at top speed. It was so tall that its head struck the lintel, but its fists punched completely through the wood. It stumbled back, clutching its head.
With a bloodthirsty yell, Lyle launched himself through the aperture. He delivered a flurry of punches that knocked HP off the troll in a tiny cloud of red numbers. It turned and tried to catch him, and Zaara leaped onto its back. She hung on and scrambled up with a few grunts of effort before she managed to stab it in the ear.
It toppled like a sack of bricks and she rolled free before she limped closer to yank her dagger out of the large ear.
“Why,” she panted, “didn’t you open the door yourself?”
“You know,” Justin told her, “you’d think I would have thought of that.”
“Yeah. I would. Now, where’s all that useful stuff?”
“Um.” He waited for the body to disappear, then triumphantly held a bracelet up. “Ha! It’s good for magic—I suppose you should have this.”
“Thank you.” Zaara slipped it on. “You know, I do feel like I could throw more spells. Maybe it’s all in my head.”
He grinned and stepped onto the stairs.
“Oh, by the way, there are patrols.” She caught up with him and whispered the words. “Lyle and I figured it out. Follow me.” She cleared her throat and wiggled her fingers, then slouched her shoulders, let her face go slack, and marched up the stairs like a zombie.
Justin had to bite his lip to keep from laughing. A glance behind him showed Lyle doing the same thing and he almost lost it but he managed to keep it together enough to clomp along behind Zaara. They passed another patrol and the members grunted. The dwarf grunted in return.
SNEAK, LEVEL 11, the game told Justin. FOOLISH BRAVADO, LEVEL 1.
He couldn’t argue with that.
The stairs ended soon after and a door led them deeper into the interior of the tower. Lyle looked at the others to see if they were ready and stood aside to let Zaara work her lock magic. The door swung open silently.
Kural’s work lasted.
The room beyond was furnished like a living room. A large hearth held a fire that crackled merrily, a sideboard was laid with delicious food and pitchers of wine, and long couches made Justin ache to sleep. His mouth watered and he groaned.
“It’s all poisoned, isn’t it?”
“Yep,” Lyle said gruffly.
The food looked so tasty that it took them a moment to realize that what floated above their heads wasn’t some kind of airy, shimmering gauze but a spell instead. Justin looked sharply at it with a curse, but it didn’t seem to come any closer. It billowed toward the ceiling and was anchored to the wall at four points. A stairway wound into the interior of the tower and vanished through the spell