Edda by Conor Kostick Page A

to win this. So long as they keep chasing you, at least. It’s a bit like the dragon fight, don’t you think, Erik?”
    “How do you mean?”
    “It’s like, if they just had a bit more intelligence, they’d hunt us down, or some of them would stop and go back the other way to intercept you. But even though they are stronger than us, their programming is too limited. And we’ve found a way to exploit it.”
    “True.” And round Cindella came again, allowing Ghost and the two avatars to open fire once more. They were growing more confident, shooting fast and piling up the bodies of horsemen at the base of the hill. Each time she came to their side of the portal, Cindella had to vary her path slightly, running alongside the curving lines of slain barbarians, all in the same death pose: horse and rider lying together on the grass.
    At last, only a handful of the enemy remained and Cindella stood her ground while everyone else finished them off, Erik evidently confident that Cindella could avoid the final stabs of the enemy’s spears. What a battle! Ghost slapped B.E. and Anonemuss on the back, then picked up her airboard to stroll down the hill and join Cindella.
    “That was pretty good fun in the end,” said B.E.
    “Want me to log out and tell Gunnar what happened?” asked Anonemuss.
    “Yes, please, and if you can persuade him, have Gunnar come through when he’s done reporting to Milan and Athena.”
    “Nice strategy, Erik. Well done.” Ghost and Cindella walked over the battlefield examining their fallen opponents. The detail on the figures was not great. The modern soldiers, for example, had the outline of pockets on their uniforms, but when Ghost and Cindella bent down to search through them, it became obvious that these were just drawn on the cloth and could not actually be opened.
    “Thanks, Ghost. We were lucky, though, really. It was so close to a total wipe. Even Cindella was nearly down.”
    B.E. picked up a rifle from the ground and shook his head. “Strange how crude it is. Like a drawing.” He pulled the trigger while aiming at a distant bush and missed. “I wonder how they reload.”
    Cindella bent down and picked one up, and as she turned it over in her hands, Erik had his avatar remove her glove. All at once the world was washed in subtle hints of green and turquoise, the light coming from a ring on her finger and recasting the scene.
    “What’s the ring?” asked Ghost.
    Cindella brandished it proudly. “It’s a magic ring from Epic, the only one of its kind: the Ring of True Seeing.”
    “And does it tell you anything about these people?”
    “Maybe. These guns, for example—they have no mechanical parts. They look like rifles, but they could be any shape. What makes them work is something I can now see inside of them, although I don’t really know what I’m looking at. There’s a space in the stock of the guns packed with glowing symbols, linked together and slowly writhing around each other. Same with these bodies. They have a cavity in their chests, but—presumably because they’re dead—there’s no glow and the symbols are broken and scattered, like the springs and coils of a watch that has been smashed open.”
    As Erik was talking, the portal flickered and the striking blond trooper that was Gunnar stepped from it. Despite the neutral expression of his avatar, there was something nervous about his movements.
    A moment later, Milan and Athena came through and behind them came Anonemuss.
    “Wow, nice battle.” Milan appeared impressed by the piles of bodies all around them.
    “The good news from your perspective”—B.E. stood up and moved toward Milan—“is that these things are not too smart. They had a very rigid set of moves. If they came through the portal and attacked Saga, they would do a lot of damage, but you would defeat them.” B.E. gestured to the hundreds of fallen troops. “Erik and I did most of this, because they wouldn’t stop chasing him even