Elusive Prey

by Cheek, Jason

  “Steph FoxFire,” the red-furred Panda girl said, shaking her hand. “And don’t mention it.”

  “Rassilon Tardis,” the Dark Elf halfling said without any anger, as he shook her hand next. “I’m sure this won’t be the only time we look out for each other in the days to come.”

  A particularly loud bellow of agony pulled their attention away as they silently watched the end of the fight. By now, Zenma Mandula of the Putrid Dugs was being pummeled to the ground by the circle of Warriors and Barbarians surrounding her as Fire Mages rained down fiery death on her head. Seeing the nearly impossible named boss finally going down, Sardren breathed a sigh of relief as her two new friends glanced back at her in surprise.

  “I wouldn’t worry too much about those Elite Mountain Trolls anymore,” Rassilon said, giving her a cocky grin. “None of those wretched bastages got away.”

  “Oh, I know that,” Sardren said with a laugh, “but these mountains are crawling with Trolls and other nasty stuff. I expect we’ll be fighting demi-humans and monsters like this the entire trip.” Seeing the look of horror on both mages’ faces, she looked back and forth between them confused. “Did I say something wrong?”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  (Second Assault Group: Star and friends reach the outskirts of Palnisdale.)

  “Rrraaawww!” The bestial roar drowned out every other sound in the gorge but the clash of shield on shield as the flood of Elite Orc Warriors surged forward. The charge hit our shield wall like a freight train and violently slammed all of us back several feet as we strained against the unrelenting demi-human push with everything we had.

  “Hold the line!” I cried out, doing my best to brace the Black Coral Iron-reinforced Defender strapped to my arm as my feet sought for some form of traction. Next to me, Sarka, Thomas, the Cobra Kai twins, AJ, Glen, John, and Kenneth echoed my call as we did everything in our power to stop the enemy’s push. Behind us, the rest of the raid braced our backs like a human chain to stop the horde’s advance. Even then, it wasn’t enough as we continued to be driven back step by step.

  The tactics we’d been using up til now were nothing new. After doing this for nearly six hours straight, there was a certain give and take to the crushing charges that we’d become accustomed to. The entire fight had consisted of falling back from one defensive position to the next with heavy skirmishes in-between as the horde did their best to crush us. Each push had been slightly different while the Orcs and our group learned to counteract each other’s strategies.

  Unlike all of the other times we’d fallen back in this fight, this time was different. We’d finally reached the end of the gorge where it connected to the edge of the Palnisdale plateau. Letting the horde out onto the open plateau as we made a last ditch dash for Palnisdale would be a death sentence. Not just for our raid, but for everyone in the area. That was why we were buying the extra time Domenic and his people needed to make the exit of the gorge impassable.

  “Dammit Jay,” Jill snarled, as we were being pushed further and further back. “Do your hands thing!”

  “What do you think I’m trying to do?” I hollered back, as I repeatedly jabbed the Dark Blade of Lord Kayden over the top of my shield.

  “Whatever it is your doing, do it faster!” Hefe cried out, from where he was trying to brace AJ from behind, but his hands barely reached the Dwarves ass cheeks.

  From the angle I was at, it looked completely obscene. One slip and I swore I’d be looking at one of Hefe’s horrible “Goatsy videos” that he was always showing off to everyone. AJ must have sensed I was about to comment on that point, when he cut me off.

  “Not one fucking word, Jay” AJ warned, giving me the look of death as everyone busted out laughing.

  “That’s … not … helping,” I yelled back, as I strained to hold the shield wall while also doing my best to focus on casting the three second spell.

  “I just wish we hadn’t used up all of our zombies when we ran away,” Sarka complained next to me, as she did her best to push back against the advancing Orcs.

  “I think that’s what the Devil Dogs call a tactical retreat,” Tinyr chimed in from behind us. While everyone laughed, I went back to figuring out how to accomplish the feat I’d managed earlier.

  The reason I kept fumbling the crowd control AOE spell was due to the fighting, blocking, and moving that I was being forced to do while trying to cast. The World’s non-instant cast spells were set to be impossible to cast if you were fighting or moving, period. That was basically the way spells like that worked in any MMO type of game.

  While I had the Concentration Skill, it only meant that I had a higher chance to not fumble a spell if I took damage. While there wasn’t anything in the in-game Wiki saying that there was a Skill that got around those in-game limitations, I’d obviously discovered some special feat by accident. Now I knew that it was possible to cast a non-instant cast spell if you were focused and lucky enough. The only problem was that purposely repeating the feat was proving to be nearly impossible.

  Unfortunately, the system hadn’t given me the Skill for the ability yet like it had for Perception, so the game was acting like the Skill wasn’t a possibility. If it worked anything like the Perception Skill, I had to make it trigger somehow. The main problem, besides being under attack, was that every miscast was costing the same amount of mana as casting the actual freaking spell. A part of me was also sure that it didn’t help that it was a level 40 spell and new to me either. The only good news in all of this was that at least the thirty second timeout wasn’t being triggered by every miscast.

  “What the hell are they doing differently this time around that we can’t hold them back?” Kenzie fumed, as everyone groaned from the strain of trying to hold the shield wall. While it was a good question that I was sure was in the backs of everyone’s minds, I think it was asked rhetorically more than anything else as we were forced back further and further.

  Ignoring the back and forth comments going on between my friends, I did my best to focus on casting the spell while my body responded automatically to the changing situations around me. As I parried, thrusted, blocked, and strained to hold the enemy back, I did my best to separate my mind between the multiple actions as I focused on my magic. While I’m sure that would’ve looked easy to anyone watching my Twitch Stream, in truth, it was the hardest thing I’d ever done in my life.

  Even worse, my own mind was just as distracting as everything else going on around me. The sarcastic side of my mind jokingly laughed that this was worse than trying not to cum during sex. It was turning into the longest proverbial three seconds of my life. Not helping, I silently chastised my inner voice, as I continued recasting the spell again and again. I could feel the Skill as if it were on the tip of my tongue, but for some reason it just wouldn’t trigger. As the line began to buckle around me, I began the three second cast for what felt like the hundredth time, when I felt Helgath slide her hand up to the back of my neck. As our minds linked from the skin-to-skin contact, I felt something snap inside of me.

  It almost felt like we were breaking through some sort of barrier inside of my own mind. Whatever it was that had been holding me back this entire time burst into a million pieces as the cast suddenly took. It felt like I was straining my brain as the seconds for the spell’s cast started ticking by. Instead of just taking three seconds to complete, the spell didn’t finish until a full six seconds later.

  Though it had taken double the time of a regular cast, the results had been worth the effort as several things happened at once. The first was the relieved cry that came from my friends as a ripping sound of earth rang out in a twenty yard swath that covered the entire front of our shield wall. While the spell should’ve only had a five yard radius, somehow Helgath had helped me tweak the spell to cover a much larger area as a plethora of zombie arms began tearing free of the ground beneath the Elite Orc Warriors’ clawed feet. At the same time, a system window popped open before my eyes.

  Co
ngratulations! You have learned a new skill Focus Casting I.

  Focus Casting I – (Passive) 25% chance to cast a non-instant cast spell while performing an action or fighting. This can increase the cast time and mana requirements of the spell by double.

  There was no time to celebrate the new Skill I’d just acquired as I dismissed the system window with a thought. From our close contact, Helgath had clearly understood the next part of the plan as she once again blended her magic with mine to cast a Magnify Damage spell that covered the same breath of the Zombie Hands spell that she’d helped me to tweak and cast. As our minds and magic blended once more, I felt another barrier inside my mind fall away as I suddenly understood how Helgath was tweaking my magic. In that moment, I realized that Helgath was adapting the spells on the fly while feeding it more mana similar to how she created her Water Shaman spells. As the Magnify Damage spell was instantly cast across the entire front of our shield wall to cover the enemy ranks, another system window popped open before my eyes.

  Congratulations! You have learned the new Skill Extended Magic.

  Extended Magic – can be triggered to increase the effect and/or range of a spell at the same mana cost required to perform the same effects individually.

  After all of the spell enhancements Helgath and I’d been doing together, acquiring the new Skill made sense on one level. At the same time, it still caught me by surprise. It wasn’t like there had been was any information to be uncovered within the in-game Wiki about higher level magic over level 50. Was this a hint as to what was to come? If so, were there any other types of magic I could uncover? While all of those things were pertinent questions burning in the back of my mind, there was no time to consider them at present as the crowd control spell momentarily allowed us to stop the horde in their tracks. Dismissing the message away with a thought, I sent a mental “thank you” to Helgath as we went on the attack.

  Immediately the NPCs and players in our team began shooting Enhanced Shadow Bolts over our heads at the Elite Orc Warriors as the front ranks shifted back to the attack. Knowing we had to work quickly while the Magnify Damage spell was active, my friends and I went all out. Driving bodily into the horde’s front ranks, we began hacking and slashing at the enemy for all we were worth.

  While the Zombie Hands spell was typically used to temporarily hold enemies in place for the caster to get out of melee range or for their pet to engage, it also had some impressive debuffs too. A fifteen percent reduction in the affected targets defense and attack speed. Combine that with the twenty-five percent increase in movement and attack speed that everyone had gotten from the Warrior Monk Jutsu spell that Fylreh had taught the raid, and it was the perfect storm for us to inflict maximum damage to the enemy.

  In the back of my mind, I mentally made a note that Fylreh and I needed to have a talk about where she’d learned that spell from. For now though, I focused on the situation at hand. While the three Orcs in front of me were busy trying to tear or cut away the rotting hands clawing at their arms and legs, I thrust my Dark Blade of Lord Kayden into the first distracted Elite Warrior’s gut and ripped it out sideways as the demi-human bellowed in agony. The big lug tried to hack me with his heavy cleaver, but I was already ripping the blade free with two hands and turning away to strike at his partner on the right. Using my shield to deflect the Orc’s slowed slash, I stepped in close in-between the two Elite Warriors. Using my elbow to knock aside the second Orc’s bronze shield, I used my whole body to bury the blade deep into the second Orc’s side.

  Rushing in behind me, Neristhana and Helgath attacked. As the first Orc tried to twist around to hack at me the Gnomeling female hammered her Leeching Hand-Axe of Severing as hard as she could into the Orc’s knee. On my other side, Helgath began hammering the second Orc’s thighs and groin with her daggers in blazing combinations as I used both hands to rip my blade free out of the same Orc’s abdomen.

  The far left Orc barely even noticed the attacks against his squad mates as he hacked at the Zombie hands that shredded his lower half. Without slowing down, I whirled around as Fylreh and Unalia’s Multi-Shots hammered the front row of Orcs around me and leaped at the third Orc with the Dark Blade of Lord Kayden leading the way. The Elite Warrior had a split-second of warning before I punched the blade into his eye. As I dropped to the ground, I cast another Magnify Damage spell across the entire area, tweaking the spell like Helgath had taught me, before launching myself at the third Orc again.

  Next to me, Sarka was going completely apeshit. Her crushing sword blows whaled into the Orcs in front of her bending shields, splitting armor, and crushing helms like she was a one-person wrecking machine. With the extra points she’d sunk into Strength, she was better able to face the Orcs on their own terms, while I was forced to evade and dodge as much as possible. Tucked in close by her side, Tinyr’s high-damage attacks ripped the Orcs’ hit points away while Fylreh and Unalia gave them Ranged Support too.

  It was just as much of a blood bath further down the line as the Cobra Kai twins, Thomas, and my friends waded into the rooted enemy. Cleaver Swords caved in heads while heavy battle axes removed limbs. The spells Magnify Damage and Arcane Speed allowed us to chop down the first two rows of Orcs within fifteen seconds. Hefe, Kenzie, Zhou, and Darkhorse were backing up the tanks with their own special attacks in an impressive dance of death, while Sara, Jill, Krystal, Thompson, and others supported the melee line with their support fire.

  Further back along the rim of the gorge, more Enhanced Shadow Bolts pummeled the hordes ranks further in the back as the Kayden Troopers did their best to give us covering fire. Once again, the Magnify Damage spell paid dividends as all damage taken by the enemy was increased by twenty-five percent. With the additional range damage tearing up the Orcs’ lines, we were able to stop the hordes’ crushing advance while my Zombie Hands spell slowly faded away.

  For the next half a minute, it was like the Elite Orc Warriors were walking into a whirling buzz saw of death. Most were down by three quarters health by the time they reached our melee line. Most had splotchy, half-eaten skin sloughing off their faces from the necrotic damage of the Dark magic spells that were assailing them. While it was a horrific style of combat on one level, it was what it was. Besides, it was also the only high-damage spell that we had which the Orcs weren’t resistant to. Not that it really mattered one way or another since there weren’t any style points in this game.

  Don’t think this was how the entire battle had been going up till now, because that was far from the case. Most of the last six hours of skirmishing and tactical retreats had been pure hand-to-hand combat with our people barely holding their own. The only way we managed to survive those engagements was with the copious application of Zombies mixed in with a lot of running away between defensive positions. This was the first time we’d had so much defensive range support in a position to temporarily overwhelm the enemy’s charging hordes.

  Once again, our ability to hold out would only last as long as our supply of mana and arrows held out, which, in truth, meant we were down to mana for most everyone. Our Rangers by now had mostly blown their load of arrows and had switched to Enhanced Shadow Bolts. The only reason Fylreh, Unalia, and Brenna had any left was because the rest of us in my team had given them everything we had in our inventories.

  The enemy horde had a seemingly endless supply of troops to overwhelm our forces. Not only that, so far, we’d only been fighting their fodder troops. What would happen once we had to fight their more advanced units? I didn’t even want to consider that. Without hesitation or remorse, we dished out a virtual hell against the enemy’s rush. Just when I was starting to feel like we’d have more than enough time for Domenic and his people to do their thing, that's when the shit hit the fan.

  “What the fuck was that?” I heard John’s weedy shout on the other side of the gorge. Blocking an axe blade with my shield while parrying a sword strike, I stepped back and hurriedly looked over to see Thomas and AJ were simply go
ne just as I realized a whole swath of our people were down. They’d all been standing directly behind the two.

  “Close up the line!” Terry Cobra cried out, as she and her husband tried to defend against the onslaught of the now free Orcs. “Star we have incoming!” A quick glance at the raid interface on my HUD showed that my friends were alive but hurt, along with Sara, Thompson, Jill, and Krystal. At the same time, I heard a familiar voice shouting in terror.

  “I’m telling you we’ve got to get the fuck out,” John shrieked, as he pointed at something further down the gorge. Thomas shouted something out to him about not being a chicken-shit whiny bitch. While I didn’t quite catch everything that was said, I heard John’s reply clear as day.

  “If you idiots want to fight those things, than be my guest,” John snarled back at Thomas, as he turned around and began pushing his way through the group of support classes behind us. “I’m getting the fuck out of here.”

  Not understanding what was going on, I turned around to take a look only to be forced to duck a heavy mace barreling in at my head. Instead of shattering my face, it ended up just clipping the wing of my helm as my friends screamed out a warning about Ogres approaching. Before I could recover enough to see what they were shouting about, a heavy spear tip skittered across my pauldrons as I was brutally shoved back from the impact. While my armor held, the strike caused major damage to the black coral of my shoulder guard, cracking it from the force of the blow.

  By now, my armor was basically trashed after fighting for so long. Even though it still had a third of its durability, there were major gashes and rents throughout the chain mail covered leather between the black coral plates. Not that there was much I could do at present. Knocking the spear tip away with a quick parry, I blocked a battle axe strike with my shield as a Multi-Shot struck the Orc in the face. While Neristhana and Helgath went for my attackers’ legs, I slashed the mace wielding Orc in the forearm. Before I could follow-up with a critical strike, I saw something that made my balls clench in fear as I froze in place.