Free Ultimatum: The Proving Grounds by Wade Adrian Page B

We don’t have time to turtle, we have to burn through everything we find as quickly as we can. Not dying is a great secondary goal, but making it to the level cap has to come first.”
    Jesse nodded. “If we don’t make it to the end, we lose anyway.”
    Amos drew back his bow as he aimed at the goblins ahead. “And we lose worse . We lose by default.”
    Paul seemed to consider it as he walked. “Right, well, I don’t think throwing caution to the wind is best… but you have a point.” He raised his shield and drew his sword. “Let’s be done with this and move on.”
    He charged ahead of the others and leapt. His raised shield bashed against one of the goblin’s hastily constructed defenses. Two goblins standing atop the wooden structure fell down as the thing toppled.
    Toby blinked a few times. “Wow. And I’ve been pissing him off all day.”
    Claire smirked. “He’s coming around.”
    They charged in with weapons readied. Toby swung his sword in great arcs, breaking the defenses as goblins fled them.
    Jesse had set the entire place on fire in less than a minute. Toby wasn’t sure if that was an admirable goal, but it was proving to be effective.
    Toby didn’t see Tim much, but that seemed to be how he operated. He had some sort of shadow step ability he wasn’t the least bit afraid to abuse.
    Amos stayed further back and took potshots at Goblins that tried to escape.
    A red flash caught Toby’s attention. He turned to see a goblin at his left with a spear. For the first time, is hit points became visible. A red bar on the upper left side of his vision. A chunk was missing, and now represented by black.
    “Oh, a wise guy, eh?” Toby lifted his sword high and brought it straight down.
    The goblin held up its spear to parry the blow… but the spear was cut in half as the sword continued its downward swing until it struck the ground.
    The two halves of the goblin fell opposite ways.
    Another flash of red appeared, now from the other side. He turned, grinding his teeth. He needed to keep an eye on the damned things.
    This one was less his fault. The goblin was several yards away and readying a second arrow to fire at him.
    He held his sword behind him. “Well, lets see how well horizontal works here.” He held his arm as far back as he could before sweeping the sword forward and releasing it, casting the sword through the open air.
    A red trail appeared behind the blade as it spun through the air.
    The sword struck the goblin in the chest and sent it flying back to the ground. Its bow was cleft in two.
    The sword reappeared in Toby’s hand a moment later.
    He grinned. “Okay, I like this thing.”
    White light washed around him. He turned to see Claire standing a few feet away while his hit point bar refilled. “Bit more situational awareness, hmm?” The hand she held out hand the palm facing him with all the fingers closed against the palm except the index finger pointing to the sky and the thumb sticking out perpendicular to it.
    He stared a moment. “Are you giving me the good guy gang sign from Big Trouble in Little China?”
    Claire looked at her own hand. “Am I?”
    Jesse shook her head. “Healing is the ‘loser’ symbol.” She held her own hand the same way in front of her forehead. Green light sprouted around her hand as a brighter green washed over Toby and filled his hit points back to the cap. The bar faded from view entirely.
    Amos smiled. “No, he’s got the right of it. It’s totally referencing Big Trouble in Little China. Good on you for recognizing it, kid.”
    “Psh.” Toby scoffed. “John Carpenter, man. It’s a classic.”
    Paul stepped up beside them. “Agreed. But right now we have bigger issues. Let’s get this done, then you can talk movies.”
    Amos’ smile grew into a grin. “Says the man who designed the healing gesture.”
    “I was not questioning the classics.” Paul shrugged. “But right now, go hit some goblins. I want this camp torn down ASAP.