Infinity Legends

Chapter 25: The Double Healer Gambit

After the successful incursion into the abandoned lab of Bibelo III, the Infinity Riders—including a reluctant Kramen—thanked DM3-C4 for his assistance and departed for a couple more hours of adventure and training. The first session of the group as a team had only ended when Dana yanked Gummybear away from the game due to it being four o’clock in the morning.

The following day, Dana had called Barry in order to give him a piece of her big sister mind, but he had not picked up as he spent nearly all day in bed sleeping off the recent all-nighter.

The team would meet again every day throughout the following weeks. Some days, they would repeat the long sessions of practice and grinding to gain levels and improve skills. Other times they would simply call each other and debate strategies, new potential recruits and how to best complement each other’s strengths. It was not unusual that one or two of the Infinity Riders would be missing during the weekdays as all of them had to study or, in Lord’s case, work, but at least three of them were always sure to meet every night.

Every time Sarah joined the session, she would repeat her sneaky entrance through the window (now provisionally patched with cardboard covering the broken portion). She kept the gaming a secret from her friends and her boyfriend, always making up an excuse to leave at night or outright sneaking out of her own bedroom through the window when everyone else was asleep.

Luca some days returned from practice too tired to embark on intergalactic adventures and instead just went to sleep, making it impossible for the others to travel on the Infinity. On such days, Barry would either spend the night simulating teams on his System or take his friends to explore whatever planet they had last landed on to discover new aliens, monsters, robots or NPC factions. Such studies were important to broaden his horizons in terms of spawning. Every creature in Fantasy Stars possessed key attributes and advantages, and understanding those allowed him, as a Spawn-Master, to select the perfect mobs for each situation they could encounter in a tournament.

With three weeks having passed since they had recruited Potathunder and explored Bibelo III, the Infinity Riders’ focus had turned solely to finding the perfect tank for the team. Recruiting the right people was, obviously, key, but Barry had refused to recruit anyone at all for weeks on end, insisting the next addition to the team had to be a tank. Having a healer, a mage and a bard as support meant the only structural component left was the tank, responsible for teasing enemies and taking all the damage for the less resistant members of the party.

Barry claimed that, having the tank, they would have a much easier time selecting the right people to fill the rest of the slots, mostly dedicated to damage dealers.

The issue was that, even after running hundreds of renowned tank names through the System, not a single one had pleased Barry. Every teammate and even Luca had eventually interceded on behalf of one tank or another, but Barry was firm on his belief that every single option was substandard, halting all recruitment for weeks on end.

And now time had caught up to them. The Legends Cup would start in three months, but in only one week the submissions for Wildcard teams would be closed. If the Infinity Riders were to make the cut and be among the candidates for a shortcut into the major leagues, they would need at least one more player in in seven days, whether Barry liked it or not.

Such dilemma had been weighing on everyone’s shoulders. Even Luca’s, despite not being officially part of the team. In all honesty, he sometimes felt more invested in the success of the Infinity Riders than he did toward his own swimming team, and that was starting to show.

“It’s been a while since we hanged out, huh?” Gabe asked as he slammed his locker close and buckled his belt.

Luca was still drying his hair and getting rid of the chlorine smell from the pool, and Gabe was already fully dressed, with his backpack over his shoulders and ready to head out.

“We hanged out yesterday!” Luca protested, reaching for his shirt.

“Yeah, we did, but I mean…” Gabe gestured. “You know? We used to spend more time together, do crazy s**t! Since you changed rooms it’s like you spend more time in your dorm than with the guys!”

“I’ve just got a lot to do, Gabe,” Luca grunted. “Can’t keep a scholarship with swimming alone, you know? I need grades.”

“Sure, sure,” Gabe waved the argument away. “What do you say we grab a shake? I give you a ride.”

“You’ll give me a ride?” Luca raised an eyebrow. “A ride to the smoothy store that’s literally ten minutes away by foot?”

Gabe nodded.

“What’s the catch?” Luca asked.

“You’ll see.”

“So, there is a catch! I knew it!”

“And you’re still coming because you’re a curious little bastard, aren’t you?” Gabe slapped Luca’s back a bit too violently, then proceeded to the exit. “Come on, captain, smoothies await!”

***

“Gabe…” Luca massaged the bridge of his nose as his friend guided the car through campus.

“I know, I know. I took a wrong turn!” Gabe threw his hands up.

“You took every wrong turn!” Luca yelled. “Heck, we shouldn’t even be taking turns! The smoothy place is literally down the street from the pool!”

As Luca ranted, Gabe’s car’s engine coughed, the smooth ride got bumpier and, in a second, the car was dead on the street.

“Oh no!” Gabe voiced in the least convincing tone possible. “The car broke down right in front of the sorority house!”

“The car didn’t break down!” Luca slapped the back of Gabe’s head. “You just missed the gear shift timing. Just turn the keys and turn the engine back on.”

“I said…” Gabe was more emphatic, “the car broke down right in front of the sorority house.”

Luca looked to the old building of the Kappa Kappa Delta sorority and rolled his eyes at the sight of curious girls already rushing outside to see what had happened. Emma, obviously, was leading them. Gabe smirked and winked at his friend.

“Guess the girls wanna see two strong swimmers play mechanic, eh? Come on now, just pretend to know what you’re doing.”

Shaking his head, Luca stepped out of the vehicle and stood by the sidewalk with his arms crossed while Gabe raised the car’s hood and made a puzzled face at the engines. In a matter of seconds, a dozen of good-looking girls had flocked around the car asking all sorts of questions. Gabe made a point of answering them all in order of attractiveness.

Luca sighed.

“You not gonna help your friend?” Sarah asked Luca with a mischievous smile.

“Yes, Luca, aren’t you?” Emma followed suit, making the two girls the only ones still focused on Luca. “It sure’d be fun to see you all sweaty and greasy…”

“Come on, Luca!” Gabe joined the requests. He was already shirtless with some grease deliberately blackening his hands and cheeks. “This is a two-men job!”

“Nah, I’m pretty sure you got it, mate!” Luca crossed his arms and retreated to a nearby oak. “I’ll just hang out here in the shade.”

“Come on, dude, I need an extra set of hands!” Gabe wiped some sweat off his face with his removed shirt.

Luca gestured at the sea of girls around the car. “Lots of free hands around you! Bet one of the girls will love getting a private lesson from such a talented mechanic.”

Gabe blushed as the girls started giggling and volunteering. Luca was curious as to how his friend would keep up the fake engine meltdown with the audience directly engaged in the fictional repairs. As Gabe selected one of the girls, Emma edged closer to Luca.

“Who wants lemonade?!” Sarah squeaked as she saw Emma moving.

Emma raised an annoyed eyebrow.

Luca squinted at Sarah. Upon meeting his gaze, she nodded towards the house.

“I’ll have some lemonade,” Luca said.

“Good,” Emma faked a smile. “Be a dear and bring everyone some, will you Sar?”

“Sure,” Sarah smiled for just as long as Emma stared at her, then rolled her eyes and nodded to the house again.

“I…” Luca stuttered. “I need to piss.”

“Oh!” Emma smirked and ran her arm around his. “I’ll show you to…”

“Don’t worry, Em!” Sarah strolled closer to the two. “I’m going inside to get the drinks, I can show Luca.”

Emma stared daggers at her friend, then staggered back as Luca slipped away from her grasp.

“Yeah, Emma, you enjoy the show,” Luca nodded at Gabe. “I’ll find my way around.”

***

“Is it safe to talk?” Luca whispered as soon as Sarah closed the kitchen door behind them.

“Yeah, everyone is outside gawking at Mechanic McFake,” Sarah giggled. “You know there’s nothing wrong with the engine, right?”

“I do,” Luca said. “Just surprised that you do too.”

“Because I’m a girl?” Sarah asked, then proceeded to get a jar of lemonade from the freezer.

“No! It’s not…”

“Shut up and listen, we don’t have much time. Something your friend said made me think.”

“What is that?” Luca asked.

“Two-men job,” Sarah whispered. “Something’s been bugging me about our tank problem, but I think I found the answer. Ever heard of the Double Healer Gambit?”

Luca shook his head.

“It was a popular strategy some seven years ago,” Sarah said. “A few teams tried employing two healers at once. One exclusively focused on the tank, who takes the most damage, and the other healing everyone else in the team.”

“Sounds smart.”

“You’d think so, but you can have at most nine players,” Sarah continued. “That’s just enough to have a melee, a couple ranged, a techie, a tank, a mage, a healer,, a support-booster and a Spawn-Master. With two healers you come short on another area, and if you’re up against a Spawn-Master worth their butts they’ll see this shortcoming and hammer it hard. You cut out your techie, you’ll be swarmed with robots. Cut out your mage and you’ll be buried in dark-matter benders. Cut your melee and the enemy will send fast melee units. That’s why nobody uses this strategy anymore, it never works. The Double Healer Gambit became the Double Healer Fallacy.”

“So, what’s the idea?” Luca asked.

“We do exactly that!” Sarah got a pen from a kitchen drawer and a napkin from the cabinet. She scribbled something on the napkin, folded it twice and handed it to a very confused Luca. “Give this to Barry. If this works, we need to recruit this guy tonight.”

“I’m not following,” Luca admitted. “Why don’t you tell him yourself?”

“I won’t go tonight.”

“But it’s Friday!” Luca protested. “We always play Friday!”

“It’s my anniversary with Charles,” Sarah shrugged.

“You have a boyfriend?” Luca frowned.

“Yes. And I already told you, you dork,” Sarah giggled, then pushed Luca out of the kitchen, lemonade pitcher in hand. “Now move out, soldier.

“Barry will get my plan!”