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The Beta-Testers Chapter 8: Growing Problems By Draconicon

7 days after the Guild Invasion...

Sarah grunted as the lioness pulled herself up the tattered remnants of the stone staircase, shaking her head as she looked up towards the top. The wall around the city of Dalia was...not in the best of shape, but it was still one of the only protections that they had, now. Since Rumiir's stupid power grab...

I swear, I'll kill him. One of these days, I'm gonna level up enough to fuck him up.

She shook her head again as she brought her attention back to the stairs, continuing the climb up the city wall. Despite her best efforts, however, her thoughts kept going back to that damn blue dragon and what he'd pulled.

She...couldn't entirely blame him for wanting to level up faster. The gamer in her understood that, and had enjoyed an exploit or two in her time. That was part of learning a new system, part of gaming it. One could always have fun finding loopholes that made you stronger than you should have been.

"But you don't fucking break the game!"

Resisting the urge to punch the wall and break her hand - something she knew was possible considering she'd done it just yesterday - Sarah continued the climb. She was almost there, almost at the point of seeing how everything had gone to hell.

The lioness remembered how even Mr. Lee had read that dragon the riot act. Cheating the game was not what they were hired to do, not what they were even supposed to consider. Beta-testers were paid and brought in to push the game, see where it would break, not reach out and break it on purpose. Rumiir had argued...

She smiled. The sight of the big blue going flying over the wall for arguing with an admin had been freaking hilarious.

The moment hadn't lasted, though. Despite the newfound strength of some of the warriors - and it was real strength, even if they got it through cheating - they were losing the fight against the portals and the silhouettes that poured out of them. These days...

She cleared the top of the wall, and turned to the west.

These days, I'm surprised that we even have a game left to play.

Looking out at the plains, she could no longer see the grasses or the great towers of the west. She couldn't see the waterways that went by the city, or the gentle rolling hills that had been surprisingly warm and inviting on her first few days. She couldn't even see the hazy boundary of the worldmap, anymore.

All she could see was darkness, writhing around on the ground in endless, infinite lumps of inky black, attaching and detaching from each other like they were more liquid than they were solid. They formed an endless tide that stretched as far as she could see, pushing further and further back until they almost seemed to climb into the sky.

And in that darkness were the holes.

She shuddered as she saw the crackling, wriggling bits of code stretching from the ground to the sky, pushing up as the only break in the darkness. The blobs and silhouettes seemed to pour out of them constantly, an endless flow of something from out of this world, and every few minutes, the holes got larger. They spread higher, further, and the streams of code seemed to get more and more frantic. Every so often, she saw some series of letters and numbers snap completely, only to reform in some new configuration.

The lioness leaned against the city wall, shaking her head.

"Fucking hell..."

"Sarah."

She turned, a small smile on her face at that voice. A rain dragon approached her, at the head of a small group of NPC archers. She leaned back from the wall.

"Teryx. I see you're taking advantage of that leadership perk."

"Well, it's the only thing that I can do, really. All the paladin powers -"

"Yeah...that bug's gotta be hell on you."

"You have no idea."

Bug. She still called it a bug, because she didn't want to think about what else it could be. A bug in the game theoretically could have gotten things this bad....but the worse it got, the less she wanted to think about it.

Despite herself, she couldn't quite take her eyes off of the dragon.

"You've been missing for a while."

"Yes. I've....been to the temple district."

"I'm sorry. The last few days..."

Shaking her head, the lioness put that debacle out of her mind. The last thing she needed to think about was what had happened to the temples. Even if they were just NPCs out there...Nobody deserved that.

"But...you've been okay? No more losses on the raids?"

The dragon shook his head.

"None so far. We're keeping to the defensible parts as much as we can."

"Picking up anything worthwhile?"

"Not much. The Raiders have picked most of the city clean around Guild street, and we can't spread much further past that."

"Not good..."

"At least we don't have to eat. All we need are supplies, ammo, and potions."

"Not much good when we can't find it, though."

Damn it, damn it, damn it, Rumiir. If I ever find you again...

She glared out over the wall again, and swore.

Okay, if I find you again after this!

Her claws scraped across the stone as she watched the stupid dragon leading his warriors out of the western gate. Players and NPCs alike were rushing out, all of them amped up on some sort of cheat or other. The players looked like Hulked-out muscle men, while the NPCs were glowing with all sorts of buffs that made no sense...

But she couldn't deny that they were being damn effective. Sarah watched as they cut a hole straight through the nearest silhouettes, smashing them to pieces and even killing off some of them. Their health bars didn't even start to drop until they were more than halfway through the horde, and she gritted her teeth, fighting the urge to order the NPCs to let loose...

They're still players...and they're probably out of range, anyway, she thought as they reached one of the much-grown holes in the sky. Rumiir's Raiders set up a barrier force between them and the silhouettes, and started...hacking.

"He's gonna make it worse, Teryx."

"He's trying what he thinks works."

"Yeah, well, he's gonna get the rest of us sent to the recycling bin, at this rate. Look at him. He just...can't...stop!"

She saw the code flickering even more as the blue dragon started manipulating it, doubtlessly pulling even more advantages to himself through the hole in the world. And as he did it, the portals expanded, spreading further and further, and dropping more and more of the creatures down around them.

And worse...

"Oh, fuck....Teryx, get those archers spread out. You got the oil?"

"Already set up, Sarah."

"Get it going!"

The lioness roared down the wall, calling out orders. Everyone leaped to the call, rushing to different cauldrons that one of the other guilds had set up after the first attack. Others were running to get the other casters ready, but Sarah doubted that they'd be here in time. Looking down, she was sure of it.

Since when can those things climb that fast? This doesn't make any sense, the lioness thought as the black stuff started slamming against the city walls, flinging itself forward like a literal tidal wave. Pieces caught on the fragments of the wall where chips and holes had left, and they started using each other as trampolines, bouncing higher and higher. In seconds, she knew, they'd be almost within striking distance.

WHAM!

Another wave, the blackness hitting the wall hard enough that she was knocked back a pace. Growling, she leaned forward, reaching for her magic -

And stopped herself. The heat was not something she needed now. Saving it for an emergency made more tactical sense. Besides, they had the oil.

A quick glance up and down the wall confirmed that all of her nearby PCs and NPCs were at the ready. She nodded and swung her arm down with a roar. All down the wall, cauldrons tipped forward, and oil that had been bubbling over fires for hours fell, running down the stone all the way to the creatures down below.

It didn't do much...but it didn't have to. All it had to do was stick.

"Archers!"

As the silhouettes were forced back down temporarily from the pressure, the archers leaned over the walls. Hundreds of fire-tipped arrows gleamed for a moment, and then were let loose all at once.

The inferno that ran up and down the walls would have made her goddess proud, in older times.

It didn't come without cost, of course. Even as she looked at the wall, the health bar of the damn thing came up. The fortifications were down to little more than fifty percent health, and she knew that the attack was gradually eroding it further. Probably would be down to 45% by the time that the fires were done, and the masons wouldn't be able to fix it more than 10% by the next day. It was a war of attrition...

She looked past the haze of heat, and glared at the retreating raiders. Rumiir was at the front, and he was half bent over, his body looking like it was bent over its own bulk by this point. His tail thrashed around, big enough to be slapping against some of his own men, now, and his head looked mutated, big enough to bite off someone's head in a literal sense, these days.

He's crazy, but smart. He knew we'd have to defend ourselves, and he used it to cover his own attack. Fuck, fuck, fuck...

"Teryx. See if you can get around the wall to the gate. Take as many archers as you need; the fire will keep the flood off for a while. Try and take that gate from Rumiir. Or break it, or something. We have to keep him from going out there and making it worse."

"I'll try. He's outleveled us by at least 300 levels now, though."

"Don't engage, just...I don't know. Do something smart."

"I'll see what I can do."

The dragon nodded, bowing before heading out. The NPCs followed the example, and she fought the urge to growl at them. She hated it when they did that.

Then again, she hated being acting guildmaster, as well, now that Ronald was...

She shook her head, taking the stairs. It was almost time for the meeting, and she couldn't afford to be late. Not with both admins attending.

Guild street was less damaged than the rest of the city, though not by much. Half of the destruction here had been to save the rest of it, and the rest...well, fire magic was one of the few reliable things against the silhouettes, and that had its own cost in use.

Several archers greeted her with a wave and a boxing glove on an arrow. She caught it before it hit her face, and tossed it back, unable to quite hold back a laugh when she walked past the barrier and saw a fox nursing a bruised nose.

"Next time, look who you're shooting at."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Anything I need to worry about?"

"Not as far as I can see. No Raiders lately, and it looks like they're keeping the silhouettes down on their end of the city."

"Small mercies."

She helped the fox to his feet and back to his position, shaking her head before wandering down the street once more.

Where there had been twelve guildhouses, now there were only eight. Four had been broken down to make the barricades at the north and south ends of the street, giving their people fortifications against attack, while the rest of the area had been turned to little more than rubble. Even the Raiders had a hard time getting through that, particularly with one of the few legitimate exploits that her and her people had been using.

Game material that's flammable but doesn't destroy itself. Heh...pity we can't make the walls out of that, she thought. It had turned the whole area into a perpetual inferno, but with the safety it brought, everyone had learned to live with it.

Still, she wished that it wasn't necessary. It had been cool at first, living in an inferno, but now that she'd gotten used to it...well, it was boring, it was smoky, and -

And it's making it too sweaty and hot!

The art of ignoring living in what was essentially a protective oven had taken some time, and she still hadn't completely mastered it. By the time she reached Ronald's old guildhouse - and her current one - she was completely soaked to the fur. She didn't even have a handkerchief to wipe her face dry, and she felt that she might kill for that.

The front room of the guildhouse was empty, as she'd expected it to be. A little over a fifth of the players had gone off with Rumiir, enticed by all the ideas of hacking the game and making themselves strong enough to survive it, while the other eighty percent of the players...

She did a mental rundown, aided by the guildmaster screen that had popped up when Ronald was knocked out of the position.

Player activity breakdown. Out of legal players remaining. 25% sleeping. 35% on watch. 20% on the wall. Remaining 20% relaxing.

She doubted that anyone was relaxing with everything going on, but the page had never been a complete source of information anyway. She closed it, and walked further into the guildhouse, passing by the library towards the guildmaster quarters.

It was a small room on the second floor, but it was big enough for the desk, a bed, and a cot. She hadn't used the bed; it didn't feel right, not when she wasn't the real guildmaster, and not when the actual one was in a coma on the cot.

He's just gonna be the first, if I can't figure out a way to wake him up, Sarah thought as the lioness knelt down by him. She pulled at her inner fires, pulling at all the magic that she had as a cleric. There had to be something there, some healing spell that she hadn't figured out.

But...what if it wasn't healing?

It has to be. He got attacked, and he didn't die and respawn, so it has to be some sort of condition, some status affecter, a de-buff, something!

Yet nothing she'd tried had worked. The lion continued to lay on the cot, sleeping, his eyes closed and his health bar resting solidly at 1 HP. No matter what she tried, what healing spells she used, it seemed like he was perpetually stuck there. Even when she converted all of her fire into something that should have at least scoured away the negative HP on him, he didn't show any signs of improvement.

The silhouettes had to be doing something besides just attacking and eating away their HP. There was something in the background going on.

And the longer that they stayed in the city, the worse it was going to get.

"I'm sorry about this, Ronald. I'm...doing my best to take care of everyone here. Not sure how you thought I'd be a good acting guildmaster if you got taken out, but..."

A shiver went down her spine, and Sarah clenched her jaw shut as she turned away. This wasn't the time...

But it was coming on anyway. Another tremor, then another went down her back, fear and fury filling her in equal measure. Not just for herself - she'd dealt with fighting enough people in and out of the game that another fight wasn't that scary - but the fact that she was...responsible for so many people. The Pride had turned to her almost as soon as Ronald went down, and they hadn't turned away since.

People needed her...and she had to make sure that they stayed safe.

The last three days had been hell. She sent people out on missions, and saw them come back wounded and hurt. She sent people to be healed, only to be told that they didn't have sufficient ingredients for potions or healers to cure them all. She had to make the decisions over who had to either suck it up and keep fighting, who got healed, and who had to be killed to respawn with their health back again.

Even when she insisted on doing it herself, she hated it. Seeing other people do it was far worse.

"I hope you get better soon, Ronald...and at the same time, I don't. This fucking sucks...Being a guildmaster fucking sucks."

Sarah hiccuped softly, fighting back a tear, and finally winning. She pushed the fear and the anger back where it belonged, back in the fire, and slowly got to her feet. Resting a hand on the unconscious lion's chest, she patted him gently.

"I'm sorry. I'll make it work. I will make it work."

And if the admins decided to make it difficult, she'd find a way to beat their heads in.

Her armor clanked louder than usual as she walked down the hallways of the guildhouse, making her way back down to the main hall, and the meeting chamber just off of it. It used to be where they kept the rewards for quests, but these days, it was where the guildmasters met for strategies. She stepped inside and shut the door behind her, met with several eyes as she walked up to the table, including the other 'acting' guildmaster of the group. She nodded at the jackal.

"Randolph. How's it going?"

"Not that great. I don't have much of a guild left, since Rumiir took most of them."

"Heh. He took some from all of us."

"Yeah, but he took the most from me."

"I'm surprised you haven't pegged him with a few of those 'poisons' of yours since he left."

"I've tried. The damn dragon's got most of his vulnerabilities covered. I swear, he's erasing his vulnerabilities as much as he's boosting his strength."

She shook her head. It wasn't great, that was for sure. She'd been hoping that the jackal had been able to do something in the last week, considering he'd been one of the closest people to the blue dragon, but no luck. It seemed that the parasites and poisons of an assassin didn't do much when the target was supernaturally lucky.

The other guildmasters were already chattering among themselves, and wasting time. She growled, tapping her fist on the round table between them.

"Let's get on track."

"Yes, let's," Randolph added.

As the various guildmasters went quiet, Sarah took another look around. She saw the other ten guildmasters - most of which she didn't know anything about - but the main reason for the meeting seemed absent. She shook her head.

"Where are the admins?"

Randolph shrugged.

"If we're lucky, maybe putting down Rumiir."

"They're not gonna kill a player. Not yet, anyway."

"They should. They're the only ones fucking strong enough for it."

That was true. She remembered seeing his levels after the first hack, when Mr. Lee sent him flying. The fact that he had been level 200 after the raid, the fact that it had messed with the system this much...

She was broken out of her thoughts as the door opened, and the admins stepped in. She recognized Mr. Lee, the snow leopard looking as impeccable as ever as he walked in, but his companion was new. He was short, a puma from the looks of him, and carried...

Are you fucking kidding me?!

"You're a BARD?!"

The puma whipped his head around, huffing.

"And what, pray tell, is wrong with a student of the bardic arts? Perfection in storytelling, my dear, is something that should be embraced, not put aside as a mere joke class."

The groans in the room were palpable, and Sarah was certainly not immune to them. A part of her wanted to sit down and cry. A bard, a fucking bard, was one of the only two people leveled up enough to not be immediately squashed by the head of the Raiders. Great. Just...just fucking great.

Before she could do anything, Mr. Lee and Mr. Grant walked up to the table, clearing a space for themselves among the various guildmasters. The snow leopard tapped the table, and the wooden surface immediately changed, opted out for a different asset. Sarah stared, while the puma rolled his eyes.

"That's against contract, Mr. Lee. We're supposed to be keeping this world as close to the original design as possible, for testing purposes. Don't you remember?"

"There are contracts, Mr. Grant, and there are clauses to get around them. At this point, I would say that I am more than justified."

"Oh, say what you will, but I will be reporting this."

Well, I already don't like you, Sarah thought as she glared at the puma. The glare didn't last long, however, as the metal table suddenly projected an image of Dalia, and all the land around the city.

It wasn't a pretty picture, to say the least. Beyond the western walls, the map was dark for over fifty miles north and south of the city, and spreading by the second. It was dark all the way to the edge of the map, and trying its best to encroach upon the walls itself. On the eastern side, it wasn't as bad - Hank, Stephen, and a surprisingly blissful druid named Torin - had run a number of successful raids before the portals had gotten too big, opening a few holes in the darkness. They were closing, though, by the look of the map.

Sarah leaned forward, as did Mr. Lee, tapping on the centermost of the eastern holes.

"It's time to give up the city. If we leave within a day, we can make it through before this hole closes."

"Oh, come now, Mr. Lee. You cannot be seriously considering -"

"I am. This test has run its course. Something is wrong, and it needs fixing."

"Why, that is precisely what I was about to suggest."

The puma pushed forward, tapping the city. The north and west sides of Dalia lit up with blue. Rumiir's Raiders controlled those areas.

"I've been in contact with these...Raiders. Despite their rather boorish ways of playing the game, they are the obviously superior strength of the game. Why don't we reach out and use them to clear us a path? As soon as we reach the portals, we can find some way to debug them. Then we can get back to the story as it's supposed to be."

Sarah sputtered, and the puma nodded at her.

"See? Our players are overcome with joy at the idea."

"Joy?! You asshat, do you know what kind of hell that would cause?"

"No, your line is, 'Yes, Mr. Grant, you are completely correct.'"

"What are you, writing some sort of fanfic?! This is serious!"

"And you are a player in someone else's part. Be silent."

Sarah's jaw dropped at the sheer ignorance and idiocy of the puma. She sputtered, trying to find the words, but the fire was rising higher and higher in her. Fingers of it began to ooze from her claws.

"You...fucking..."

"I said Be Silent."

The words came out as music, and suddenly, Sarah found herself completely unable to speak. It was like a vise around the back of her throat, keeping all noise from passing out of her lips. Her vision went red as the fire got hotter and hotter, pent up inside of her and unable to leave due to the magic-dampening spell.

Why do you keep giving me people to hate?! I am not that bad! Give me someone to like, you fucking game!

She stomped around the table, pulling her mace out from her belt as the puma started talking again.

"Now, as I was saying before our substitute actress interrupted. We can easily reach the portals with the help of the Raiders, and then we can get this story back on track. Nobody likes improv that much, anyway. We had this grand plan for a story, and now it's ruined. But we can salvage it."

Keep talking, asshat. Soon you'll be speaking out of the other end...where all that shit should be coming out of anyway.

She ignored him as he kept going on about his story, about the proper players and who knew what else. She had heard more than enough. As she stood behind the puma, all the other guildmasters scattered around as she whipped the mace over her head. It spun in a circle as she took aim, and brought it down with all the strength that her remaining Power Attack skill had behind it.

CRACK!

At first, she thought she had actually broken something...then she found out that it was the mace. She stared at the thick metal weapon, her jaw dropping at how it had snapped right in the middle like a cheap piece of wood.

And the fucking puma was still talking!

"And then we can put the proper players in their roles again. This 'Rumiir' seems quite capable, and has been very accommodating in all our talks with him. We should work with him."

If you fucking do this...I fucking...

Fire built up hotter and hotter in her head, and Sarah's inner screams felt like they were turning her thoughts to white-hot heat. If it weren't impossible, she swore that her anger was coming out of her ears in the form of steam...and she wasn't entirely sure it was impossible.

Rage...rage...

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!"

The spell was broken. Mr. Grant whipped around, his eyes widening as she grabbed him by the vest of his pompous purple shirt, and whipped him around towards the wall. She didn't care how she broke the spell, she didn't care if it was some sort of good luck roll or anything else. All she fucking cared about was telling him how much of an idiot he was.

"You fucking fucker! Do you even hear yourself! Don't you know who it was that fucking started this fucking mess?! And you want to talk about story?! We're dying in here, we're getting put through hell, and you want to reward the absolute fucking idiot that started the whole damn thing?! No, no, no, no, no! You are done. You are fucking done."

"Ma'am -"

"I didn't say you could talk! I said shut up! You're done! You're not even fucking qualified to be here!"

She pulled back to slam him against the wall again -

"Slippery Slopes.

And immediately went falling flat on her ass. The lioness yelped as she went down with a clank and a clang. Even as she rolled around, trying to get up, she kept sliding around, the grease puddle she was in too slippery to get out of.

Yet, the fucking puma walked through it without even staining his boots.

"And this is why I prefer the Shakespearean style. No women in leading roles; too high strung."

"You -"

"Sarah, if I may."

The snow leopard. The fucking...She glared at him from the puddle.

"I swear, if you agree..."

"I assure you, I do not. Mr. Grant."

"Mr. Lee, please, we don't need to -"

"I suggest putting it to a vote. We are not gods; we are merely admins. We've made our case, as, I believe, so has Sarah. The players decide what happens next."

"The players? The players are nothing without direction. How could you be sure of them finding the right path for the story?"

"Fucking...railroader..."

"Vulgar, but appropriate, Sarah," Mr. Lee said. "The point of the game is to see what people will do. Beta-testing is entirely about seeing what people will do with our product, not to force them into one path. Besides, if we do not depart the city, we will be swallowed by programming."

"But the walls -"

The snow leopard held up his hand.

"It's out of our hands. I put it to a vote of the guildmasters."

Mr. Lee walked around the sputtering puma, and reached down for her. Sarah took his hand with a nod of thanks, and walked back to her place. If it wasn't for the fact that her mace was now nothing more than a piece of kindling, she actually would find the outcome rather good. As long as that stupid puma kept his mouth shut...

The vote passed five minutes later. Nine guildmasters voted to leave, while three voted to stay. Mr. Grant threw a fit, wailing and weeping over the table, while Mr. Lee worked his usual admin magic to send out mass messages.

"At the very least, your nine guilds will be prepared to leave tomorrow."

"Yeah, no kidding."

Sarah shook her head as the message plinked into her mailbox. She scanned it, noting the pertinent information - meeting place and time - for the guilds, and then deleted it.

"Looks like we're going to have to go through the old arena to get there. Think Rumiir's gonna let us get through?"

"I leave Rumiir in Mr. Grant's capable hands. If they wish to work with each other so badly, let them have each other."

"Then what are you doing?"

"I am going to be meeting your group tomorrow. You will need some help to move forward without fortifications."

"What, you mean you're actually getting involved?"

"Yes, guildmistress. I believe that is precisely what I'm saying."

"...It's going to be that bad, getting out of the city?"

"More likely, it will be worse. But either we chance something, or we lose it all."

She shook her head.

"Not much choice there."

"No, but is there ever?"

The snow leopard shrugged, turning his back on her.

"I've managed a replacement for your weapon. You'll find it in the guildmaster quarters. I'd suggest getting familiar with it; it's not quite your regular thing. In the meantime, I feel that your paladin has been missing for a while."

"Yes...here's hoping Teryx didn't run into trouble."

"I'll find out. Consider it my way of clearing a debt."

"For what?"

"For your shouting match with Mr. Grant."

The slightest of smiles crossed the snow leopard's face.

"It was quite the sight. Be well, Sarah."

And with that, Mr. Lee disappeared. Sarah looked around, wondering just where he might be off to, if there were other worries that she needed to deal with, if the game would try and ambush them overnight to try and keep them from leaving the city...

Then she stopped. She took a deep breath, letting the inner fire surge up through her and consume everything in its path. Worries, anger, tears; everything was pulled into the fire and burned. It wouldn't go, not completely - they were too solid for that - but she could scald them, push them down, chase them away for a little while.

A good bit of alcohol and company would do the rest.

Using the guildmaster page to send out a mass message of the shift rotations for the night, and then a private one to both Hank and a bear she'd met recently, she walked down to the guildhouse's kitchen. She remembered there being some very good vodka down there...

I'll check out the weapon in the morning. Tonight...tonight I want to forget about the guildmaster stuff for a while.

Chapter End