Light Online Book Three: Leader

by Tom Larcombe

  “I'm going to catch a fish, then cast a spell on it and release it. When I can see through its eyes I can maybe figure out where the zombies still in the lake are so we don't end up wasting time by trying to find them where they aren't.

  ~ ~ ~

  Chapter Five

  Terrod and Sombra respawned within moments of one another. They were back in the goblin village they'd last set their respawn at, a place they'd hoped to leave behind for good.

  “Crap,” Sombra said. “This again. The whole damn place has respawned because we weren't here. We need to take out the leader type and the shaman again so we can regain control.”

  “You know damned well that I know that,” Terrod said. “Go take out the shaman before I challenge the leader.”

  They'd respawned in one of the pitiful goblin longhouses. It was currently unoccupied, the goblins normally only going into them to sleep. Sombra dropped into stealth and disappeared while Terrod checked his gear.

  Several minutes later Sombra reappeared alongside Terrod, who just barely managed to not attack him.

  “Don't do that, you know better,” Terrod said.

  Sombra just sneered at him.

  “The shaman is down and out,” he said.

  “Alright then, my turn I guess.”

  Terrod stood up and exited the building. He took a deep breath.

  “I challenge for leadership!” he roared.

  Sombra stood behind him in the doorway, watching as a roar of acceptance rang out in the village. When the current goblin leader stepped up, Terrod gulped.

  “What the hell, I thought the leaders here were just supposed to be goblin warriors, not that thing.”

  The current leader was significantly larger than Terrod had been expecting.

  “It's just an Elite Goblin Warrior is all,” Sombra said. “You can take him.”

  “Yeah, okay, sure you don't want to switch places here?” Terrod asked.

  Sombra snorted.

  “Like I'd get into direct melee. Not my style dude, this is all you.”

  And it was all him, for about a minute and a half before the Elite Goblin Warrior finished the fight, Terrod going down hard.

  Several hours later Terrod respawned. A moment after Sombra was beside him.

  “Come on, still no shaman. Go kill that guy,” Sombra said.

  Terrod stared at the thief incredulously.

  “There's no way I can do that. He just dominated that last fight. He's stronger than me and the equipment he's using is better than the normal trash the goblins have. You know what? I'm done with you. After all those promises you made, loot and women, power and glory, look what we're reduced to. No-one in this area wants us anywhere around them and I'm sure our names made it up on some of the forums due to how dickish you've had us acting.”

  Terrod took on a faraway look, one that Sombra recognized as him using the interface.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Sombra said.

  “Getting the hell out of here, I'm going to restart with a new character, in an entirely different area.”

  “Like hell you are!” Sombra cried out.

  He drew his daggers for the agility bonus they added and was about to tackle Terrod to break his concentration when the fighter simply shimmered and vanished. A moment later goblins started spilling into the building, alerted by Sombra's loud shouts of rage and frustration.

  He went down quickly, only taking one of the goblin scouts with him, showing just how correct he was about his character not being designed for direct melee.

  In the darkness where he sat, waiting for respawn, Sombra raged until he finally made a decision.

  “To hell with this game, I quit!”

  ~ ~ ~

  Eddie stared through the fish's eyes. His own were closed and this time, hopefully, no-one was going to disturb him and disrupt his spell.

  He'd experimented a little, since he could hold the spell for quite a while when he started with his mana full, and had discovered that he could use the fish's instincts against it to steer, sort of. If he gave it a feeling of nervousness and pushed the thought to the fish that something large was moving to one side or the other, the fish would normally dart in the opposite direction.

  Using his, admittedly inefficient, steering method for the fish, he'd discovered the last remaining zombies in the lake. There were three groups in the middle, including the one lurking near the sunken boat he'd seen, and four more in the shallows where they'd be able to easily draw them in. The only problem he was having was figuring the onshore locations closest to the groups remaining. Finally, he'd gotten the fish into the shallows and been able to note some landmarks that ought to be visible from the shore as well.

  “Okay, see that group of rocks near that little cove?” Eddie asked. “We've got a group there. Plus another on the forest side where that fallen tree is part on land and part in the water. There's one near the island and the last is somewhere down in that meadow at the far end. Aside from that, there are three groups in the middle that we'll have to try the rope and raft trick to get.”

  Clearing the ones close to shore didn't take long. Two of the groups went quickly while the third, the one he hadn't been able to get exact landmarks for, took a lot longer. Then they were on the raft to the island again. The group near the island shore went down fast as well, but when they started with the rope and raft bit, things slowed again.

  They got the first group right away. The only problem was that Eddie had to start firing a lot earlier than they'd anticipated. Allie, out on the raft, would have fallen in if she hadn't dropped and gotten a grip on the wood, so she couldn't help very much when the zombies got to the edge of the raft. She'd scrambled back on the raft though, and before the zombies managed to pull themselves all the way onto it, Jern and Karl had gotten it grounded on the beach. Eddie had kept them from getting up sooner with his bow, shooting the first couple that tried to pull themselves onto the wood of the raft.

  Once it was grounded, Allie had pulled out her ax, Jern had stepped up alongside of her, and the zombies had gone down quickly. The dwarf was willing to fight on the raft when the water beneath it was shallow enough that he could stand if he fell in, just not if it was any deeper.

  Then the tedium started. They'd tried position after position, wasting lots of rat meat trying to get one of the last two groups to take the bait, but it hadn't worked. There were still two groups out there as far as Eddie knew, and he didn't have the slightest clue as to how to get them to come into shore.

  So, maybe we can't get them to shore, Eddie thought. Fighting on the raft isn't my first choice, hell Jern won't even come with us if we're doing it out there. What other options do we have?

  He quickly dismissed the first idea that came to mind, having someone in the water as human bait. It might work, but he really didn't want to try it if he could think of anything else.

  At least I'm pretty sure that someone kicking and splashing in the water would draw them in, at least if the person were close enough, but... let's see if we can come up with any other ideas first.

  “So, anyone else got any ideas here?” Eddie asked. “I've got one, but I don't like it.”

  “No Plan B here,” Karl said.

  The rest of the group shook their heads as well.

  “So what've you got for a plan, Eddie?” Karl asked.

  Eddie suppressed a smirk.

  “I'm calling it plan K, since I'd much rather use a plan B through J, but don't have them. Besides, it's very much a Karl style plan.”

  Karl's eyebrows raised.

  “Oh, really?” he asked.

  “Yup, we need to put the raft at the far end of the long rope, tie someone onto it with a chunk of the shorter rope, then have them jump in the water and kick and splash. I'm sure that'll draw the zombies in, but...”

  He let the silence draw out for a few moments.

  “There's got to be another way,” Tiana said.

  Karl was shaking his head.


  “Nuh-uh, no way, I'm not doing that,” he added.

  “I wasn't expecting you to,” Eddie said, starting to strip off his armor. “I'll do it. But I want everyone on the rope so you can pull me in as fast as possible at the first sign of zombies.”

  “Eddie, no,” Tiana said.

  “Well, if someone else has a better idea, we'll run with it. I'm sure this'll get the zombies moving to where we can kill them though,” Eddie said. “Besides, my respawn is set at the temple. Even if everything goes bad I'll be back in an hour or so.”

  Tiana glared at him fiercely for several moments before dropping her gaze.

  “I don't have a better idea, but that doesn't mean I have to like this one,” she said.

  “I don't exactly like it either,” Eddie replied, “but it's the only one we've come up with.”

  He clambered onto the raft and made sure the long rope was secure.

  “Allie, let me have the other rope.”

  She tossed it over and he untied it into its constituent parts before using the shortest section of it to secure himself to the raft. The rest of the rope he tied onto the longer portion to allow the raft to get closer to the target. Then he grabbed a paddle and pushed the raft off, paddling towards the very center of the lake, or at least as close to it as he could get with the rope attached to the raft.

  When he reached the limit of the rope, he stopped and secured the paddle. Then he had to take a few moments to psyche himself up before he jumped into the water, doing a cannonball so as to create as much of a disturbance as he could.

  With his short sword in one hand, he splashed around as much as he could with two legs and one arm, frequently ducking his head below water and opening his eyes to see if anything was approaching.

  I really, really, should've talked one of the others into this, then used a fish to observe, he thought.

  When a clawed hand grabbed his ankle, there had been no sign on the surface of approaching zombies.

  “Pull it in! Pull!” he shouted frantically.

  The rest of the party on shore started hauling and Eddie was glad he'd tied himself to the raft. He never would've been able to hang on with the added weight of the zombie attached, even in the water. As it was he thrust down with his sword, trying to find the wrist of the zombie holding onto him before it dislocated his ankle.

  As he started moving through the water, he was pretty sure he felt something brush against his other ankle, as though something had tried to grab him, but missed. Meanwhile the hand on his ankle was joined by a second one on his calf and he felt increased pressure on that leg as something tried to climb its way up him.

  He thrust with the sword again. When the hands released him, he was pretty sure he'd scored a hit. Before long the raft was grounded and he pulled himself up onto it. He forgot he was tied to the raft though, so when he ran up the beach he found himself yanked to an abrupt halt just as the first of the zombies rose from the water.

  The zombie had a wound on its upper arm, he guessed from where he'd thrust his sword at it. That was all Eddie got to see before Jern stepped between him and the zombie, planting his shield and swinging his hammer. A pair of arrows sprouted from the zombie's torso as Allie, off to one side, started firing.

  Eddie struggled to untie the rope and back away as more zombies rose from the lake. Finally he just cut it and sprinted back and to the side while pulling out his own bow. He was suffused with warmth as the pain in his ankle disappeared and a glance at Tiana, who was grimacing at him, told him that she'd healed him.

  Eddie fired over and over. This group had four zombies in it and, aside from the original issues with one clawing Eddie in the water and him almost not being able to get away from it, they went down quickly.

  “So, that worked,” Eddie said. “But I'm just going to lie here in the sun for a few minutes before I go back to try to pull in the last group. Need to use a different knot too, something quick release, to tie myself to the raft.”

  Tiana was done glaring at him, now she just shook her head.

  “Plan K, really? You think I'd do something that stupid?” Karl asked.

  “Cattle herd? Stampede? Something like that ring a bell?” Eddie replied.

  Karl flushed, but whatever else he'd been about say never escaped his mouth as he turned away.

  Eddie took the time he needed to even be willing to consider going out on the raft again. He'd been sort of hoping someone else would volunteer as bait for the last group, but he didn't really expect it. He'd have had a problem if Tiana volunteered, wouldn't have gone for Becky since Paul had asked him to keep an eye on her, he could see Allie or Karl doing it, but Jern would sink, and Dominic was a fire mage so in the water wouldn't be a good place for him.

  I guess Allie and Karl have already done enough stupid things on their own that they aren't going to volunteer for this one. It's my idea so I'll just finish it.

  Eddie stood up and walked back out onto the raft. There was still enough slack in the rope, even after he'd cut it, that he simply tied it to himself again. This time, he tied a knot he thought would hold that he also thought he could undo quickly.

  “Alright, there was no warning last time, so just be ready when I yell,” Eddie said. “If I'm right, one of this group will be a mini-boss too, so the fight may be harder.”

  He could almost hear Tiana grinding her teeth when he made that last revelation.

  “At least put some of your armor on,” she said. “You weren't having any problems staying afloat that last time, so you ought to at least be able to armor up a little.”

  “I don't want to ruin it.”

  “We can get more at your swap meet, maybe keep your good studded leather off, but armor up with the cheap goblin stuff that we can replace easily,” she said.

  He knew he'd been stressing her, so he pulled those pieces out of his inventory and put them on.

  “Okay, I'm off then.”

  He picked up the paddle as everyone else took a grip on the rope. Then he started paddling out again. It took him longer to get psyched up to jump in the lake this time than it had earlier, but he finally did it, making as big a splash as he could getting into the water.

  The armor made it harder to stay afloat, but he could still manage it, it also made him splash around more which was probably to the good. The minutes stretched out though and he still didn't have any takers.

  He was about to give up and crawl back up on the raft when he saw the wake on the surface.

  “Pull!” he called out, dragging himself up onto the raft.

  His eyes were on the wake, so when a hand reached out the water and grabbed his leg just as he swung it up on the raft, the same leg as last time, he was taken off guard and yanked back into the lake.

  Then the rope went taut and he was being dragged through the water. The hand didn't let go and when he tried to hit the hand, or its attached arm, with his sword, he missed utterly. The wake was growing closer now, even with the raft moving quickly enough that he couldn't see a damned thing, the water was rushing over his face, the spray flying up into the air making it even harder to see anything.

  Eddie was pissed. He'd already been angry about volunteering for his own idea, at least a little, and now he was just furious. A glance showed him that the raft was close to shore, so he hit the quick release knot and let himself stop being towed. When his head went underwater the next time, he stayed there.

  As soon as he saw the zombie that had a grip on him, he thrust his sword, running it straight through the thing's chest. It wasn't enough to kill it and he knew it wouldn't be, but it was enough to make the zombie release its grip on his leg.

  His feet went down and he found that he was in the water up to about his navel. From this angle he could still see the zombie, so he thrust again. Then he glanced up and realized that the wake they'd seen before had almost caught up to him.

  Screw it, he thought. I've done this one before so I shouldn't pass out.

  When the w
ake was very nearly to him, he used his Conjunction skill, combining the Accelerate Plant Growth spell and his Weaving skill. Focusing on the seaweed in the lake, he tried to convince it to trap the zombie that had attacked him as well as the two more that were just coming into view.

  While he felt light headed on completion, he didn't pass out and he didn't get a headache from overuse of mana. Which was good since the seaweed had trapped two of the zombies, but the third was currently cutting its way out of the weeds with the spear it carried.

  Eddie backpedaled to shore.

  “Incoming mini-boss,” he called out.

  A few seconds later the zombie with the armor and spear stood up, it was just over knee deep in the water and coming in towards the shore quickly.

  “Two adds trapped in the water out there too,” Eddie called. “They'll be a bit, all tangled in the weeds.”

  He was still backing up the shoreline, pulling out his bow as he went. Tiana started chanting and before the zombie even made it to the shore her hand was glowing with a white light. The zombie winced and backed up for a moment, then continued forward, only to find Jern blocking its path to Eddie.

  Jern was in a bad spot. The zombie had the spear, which had a much greater reach than Jern's hammer, so Jern went on the defensive. Allie was firing, but the arrows didn't seem to do a lot so Eddie didn't bother to nock an arrow, instead he thought:

  Cast Arc.

  The bolt of electricity that came out of his hand was significantly larger than when he'd first used the spell. He figured his arc spell would do nearly as much damage as a broadhead arrow now and since zombies tended to take less than normal damage from things like swords and arrows, it was probably his best bet.

  When the bolt of electricity struck the zombie, he was sure he'd been right. It looked like his Arc was doing a lot more damage than Allie's arrows.

  “Becky, use Arc, looks like it's full damage, or at least more than the arrows,” he called out.

  Becky stepped a bit closer and started using her own Arc spell. They weren't a guaranteed hit and a few of hers missed, but Eddie had been right and his agility made him more likely to hit with his own. Also the armor the zombie was wearing was leather, but it had metal buckles and rivets which were what he tried to target with his spells.