Gamerunner by B. R. Collins Read Free Book Online

takes a step towards his corpse, checks the map one last time, and kneels to touch his body.
    There’s a blue swirl of light around the two identical figures; the corpse dissolves into stars and smoke. When it clears, Herkules is grinning.
    PvP mode is enabled . There is one live player within range. Do you want to engage him?
    ‘Yes, please,’ Rick says, just loud enough for Herkules to hear.
    Herkules turns round, slowly.
    Rick meets his eyes and feels laughter bubbling up inside him. He says, ‘Surprise!’
    ‘What on earth are you doing? Go away and leave me alone.’
    ‘What the hell are you doing? How did your corpse get here? If you die here, your account gets wiped. There’s no way you could leave your body here. You must have cheated.’ He smiles, showing his teeth.
    ‘Look . . .’ Herkules says. ‘So I might have found a bug. So what? It’s none of your business. Anyway, now you know about it too.’
    ‘And the map?’
    ‘What map? I don’t have a . . .’ He stops. His eyes flicker — he must be reading something that Rick can’t see — and his hand creeps towards his belt. Rick keeps his eyes on Herkules’ index finger, ready to dodge as soon as a weapon materialises. ‘You want to fight me, do you?’
    ‘Yep.’
    ‘That’s stupid. Look,’ Herkules says again. Either the mimic program isn’t working properly or he hasn’t got the hang of sounding reasonable. ‘There’s no reason to fight me. We can both complete the quest — and you’ll get more reputation from that than from killing me. And anyway I’d win. Give it up, sweetheart.’
    ‘Nope. Sorry. No go.’
    ‘What?’
    Rick shrugs. His muscles are so tired it feels like his shoulder blades have got stuck together behind his back. ‘I’ve got to fight you,’ he says, trying to sound like he’s taking it seriously.
    ‘Oh,’ Herkules says, and turns away, fiddling with something at his waist.
    And spins back, catching Rick off-guard.
    He’s fast. Gods, he’s fast. Rick hears his own voice saying, You mean he always wins .
    Stop it. Stop thinking .
    Rick ducks, rolls, inelegantly, smacking his shoulder on the ground, but he’s out of the way, just. He grabs for Herkules’ ankle, but the other foot swings up and stamps down into his face, and he has to block with both forearms. He rolls forward and on to his feet, and spins to face Herkules, his back against the wall, breathing so hard he thinks his lungs might spring a leak. He rests his hand on his weapon-belt. Double daggers? Sword and dagger? Does he want speed, or range?
    Herkules says, ‘Well then, sweeth—’
    And swings his sword in the middle of the word: a nice trick, but this time Rick’s ready. His hands have already chosen his weapon — daggers; if he doesn’t have speed he doesn’t have a chance — and the blades meet and cross in front of him, catching Herkules’ sword at eye level and swinging it away. The metal catches the light and shines like lightning. He lets the momentum carry him off the vertical and kicks with his free foot, but Herkules pulls his sword away and jumps back, on guard.
    ‘Nice try, little girl.’
    It’s stupid, how much that annoys him. He takes a long breath, diluting the anger. He thinks: I’ll kill him. Then he’ll be sorry.
    He relaxes his arms, standing ready. The dagger hilts tremble under his fingers, as if they’ve got a mind of their own. He wishes that they did; he needs all the help he can get. He edges forward, sideways, keeping his weight balanced, ready to go in any direction. Makes an experimental feint —
    But Herkules is there before he is.
    He smashes his sword blade down on the guard of Rick’s dagger. The hilt leaps, biting into the bones of his hand. Rick’s fingers open. He can’t stop them. The dagger drops to the ground. He looks down at it, his guts sinking. The vibration runs up to his shoulder like an electric current, stinging. He thinks: Another centi-em and he’d have disabled my hand.