Elusive Prey

by Cheek, Jason

  Around Forty yards further down the gorge were a troop of what could only be armored Ogres. They’d obviously lost patience waiting for a clear path to us, so instead they’d decided to make their own. Brutally swatting any Orcs that were in front of them out of the way, they ponderously strode directly for our lines with the surety and confidence of an armored Panzer. A quick Identify confirmed my guess about the immense demi-humans as Elite Rock Ogre Champions level 60 popped up over their heads.

  They were massive, twelve feet tall, fully armored beasts of war. The Elite Rock Ogre Champions didn’t wear bronze armor like the Orcs, but a crudely constructed, spiked armor made from heavy, beaten-iron plates. Their breastplates and pauldrons were connected to one another by thick iron chains that showed a glimpse of all the Ogres rock-like skin between these wide gaps. Below the waist the demi-humans were even better protected with solid iron greaves that completely covered their legs and the tops of their large clawed feet. Though, what stood out the most were their crudely-cut iron helms that fully covered their heads, except for the lower portion of their massive jaws that were filled with rows of sharp pointy teeth and long tusks that stuck out above and below their thick lips.

  Each Ogre was nearly eight feet wide from shoulder-to-shoulder with massive iron slabs for shields and crude cleaver-swords that were more akin to thick iron bars than actual blades. Their arms were nearly as thick around as my torso and just two of them abreast, more or less, took up the entire width of the gorge. As if that weren't enough to cause terror in their enemies, each had skulls hanging around their thick necks and stacked atop their shoulder spikes in a gruesome display of their individual battle prowess. I swear, it was like some fanboy developer on the team had based them off of the Ogres from Dragon Age.

  Not that, that comparison made them any less terrifying. If anything, it was more like putting a name to the horrifying creatures stomping towards us. By now, the ruckus the Ogres were making as they casually smashed the Elite Orc Warriors out of their way was loud enough for the Orcs that were fighting us to hesitate in their attack and look behind them. Being the bastard I was, I stabbed the Orc asshole in front of me in the back of the head, at the junction between his backplate and helm, killing him instantly with a Backstab, while Helgath and Neristhana cut down the Orcs to the right and left of the one I’d killed. I guess I wasn’t the only bastard in the party, I thought with a smirk, as the girls gave each other a high five.

  The fearful looks on the Orcs’ faces as they turned around and scattered with some even dropping their weapons, didn’t help the lump of anxiety forming in my stomach. Even though I enjoyed ridiculing John for being such a big pussy, I couldn’t fault him for the hysterics this time around. Besides, watching the Elite Warriors casually being splatted against the side of the gorge confirmed that John had the right of it. At least, he did in the sense that we were definitely in the wrong place to fight these things.

  The whole running away like a little bitch was a different story altogether. Hell, even his daughter and her boyfriend didn’t do that. While it was true that if they caught us in these tight quarters without any room to dodge and evade their overpowered strikes we would all end up dead, it didn’t mean you just ran away without coming up with a plan to deal with the fuckers.

  “Everyone but tanks and rogues fall back to the plateau,” I called out to my team, as I watched most of the volleys of Enhanced Shadow Bolts coming from the rest of the raid uselessly splattering against the Ogres’ heavy armor. Even the few shots that hit skin didn’t seem to do all that much damage. Watching their advance was more than enough to scare the bejesus out of anyone. “Dom, I hope you have those Moonshine Elementals in place, because we’re officially fucked!”

  “Almost there,” Domenic said in a distracted voice, “try to buy us whatever time you can or this isn’t going to work.”

  Sara didn’t even hesitate as she turned around and headed out of the gorge. Krystal and Jill were somewhat annoyed, but when they saw Thompson falling back, they calmed down a bit. As I caught their eyes. “Maybe you can come up with a plan D if this doesn’t work,” I joked as Krystal looked over at Jill questioningly.

  “I thought this was plan B,” she asked, somewhat confused.

  “Nope, plan B was having Domenic blow everything up,” Jill confirmed, as she began pushing Krystal after the Devil Dogs. “And plan C is whatever asinine thing that Star is now hoping to accomplish.”

  The rest of whatever they were saying was cut off as Unalia and Yun gave all of us sympathetic looks, before taking off after everyone else. Seeing Fylreh drawing her scimitars, I shook my head at her and nodded at the ridge. “Just be prepared to help keep those assholes off the plateau.” While I could tell she wanted to argue, instead she just gave me a silent nod, before spinning around and hurrying after everyone else.

  Though her mass and level could’ve been a huge help, there was no way that Fylreh could go head-to-head against these Ogres in a contest of strength. Besides, in a tight area such as this, her speed would be all but useless. I figured it was best to let her work with everyone else to come up with a plan D since it was obvious this was a last ditch effort for the rest of us.

  “You don’t think we can take these guys, do you?” AJ asked, eyeing the Ogres as he walked over with Hefe, Bonnie Smash, Glen, and Kenneth.

  “Heh … heh … heh, of course he does,” Hefe confidently laughed. “Otherwise, why would we be here?”

  “So that everyone else can escape the gorge,” Tinyr said with an audible “duh” tone, as the Gnome froze in midstride, while Bonnie Smash nervously chuckled behind her boyfriend’s back.

  “You’re da man,” I said, seeing Hefe’s questioning look, as I gave him an apologetic shrug. “Right?”

  “You’re so pathetic,” Neristhana jokingly teased, elbowing him out of the way as she stepped up beside me. For a second, the Gnomeling female and I just looked at each other as I tried to figure out if I could ask her to fall back or not, when Helgath jogged my shoulder meaningfully. Catching her drift, I swallowed the words I was going to say as I looked towards the Devil Dogs who’d just walked up.

  “Let me guess,” Thomas said, coming to a stop and eyed the approaching Ogres. “We’re the diversion?”

  “More or less,” I agreed.

  “So what’s the plan?” Hefe asked, clanging his punch daggers together.

  “To not get hit,” Zhou said, as Kenzie spoke up giving Hefe a meaningful look.

  “Or stepped on,” Kenzie added.

  I couldn’t help the grin that came to my lips as Hefe flipped both Rogues off. It wasn’t meant in a bad way. By now, after fighting so closely together, we’d all gotten to know each other’s humor and idiosyncrasies quite well. Besides, there was no question in any of our minds that this wasn’t going to be any walk in the park. Nonetheless, we were prepared to do what was needed. As I stood facing off against the armored muscle-bound Ogres, Thomas stepped up beside me and gave me a nod.

  “You want to take the right or the left?” Thomas asked, as we began confidently striding towards the Ogres as everyone began grouping up into their favorite teams.

  A part of the entire situation felt surreal. Even with the steep grade of the slope, the two iron-clad demi-humans at the front of the formation seemed to tower over us with each step. A part of me felt like I should be terrified for what was about to happen, but, in all honestly, all that I felt was excitement at the coming challenge.

  “We’ll take the right,” I said, as I eyed the bodies strewn around the gorge. My mind already piecing together the parts of a plan.

  “Of course you will,” Thomas said with a soft chuckle. In certain ways, I could be very predictable. Unless it was PvP and I was trying to throw the enemy off their game, I tended to go for the right target first.

  “Don’t attack until after the explosions,” I said, ignoring Thomas’ raised eyebrows.

  The Devil Dogs were grouped together with the Cobra Kai
twins, Thomas, Kenzie, Darkhorse, and Zhou. My older friends’ team was in the rear and consisted of AJ, Hefe, and Bonnie Smash who were going to play backup like usual. The last was my team that consisted of myself, Sarka, Tinyr, Neristhana, and Helgath. Neysa had followed my request to scout the plateau to make sure that we didn’t have any danger at our back. Though the teams looked thrown together, in truth, this was a raid layout that we’d been fine-tuning throughout most of the day and it had served us well in facing the enemy up until now. As the range began to close between us, Sarka growled in a low voice.

  “This is going to completely suck, isn’t it?” She asked, breathing heavily as if she were trying to pump up her aggression to a hundred percent. It was kind of hot and scary all at the same time with her heaving chest as her voice took on an angry tone. “You DO have a plan for this, right?”

  Ha! I silently chucked at her words, a little bit afraid to openly laugh at her question while she was getting all worked up. While I always had some ideas for how to better shift a situation in my favor, in truth, I had no real plan this time around. With a thought, I began casting Holy Shield, Light’s Blessing, Enhanced Mage Armor, Bone Shield and Fangs, and Regeneration while I stretched my magic to encompass my friends when allowed. Though it was a little bit of a struggle to reach out to the entire group, overall the new skills worked like a charm as my friends glanced at me in surprise at the sudden wave of buffs. Giving Sarka a grim nod to answer her question, I reached for my magic as Helgath’s clawed fingers wrapped around my bicep.

  “Let’s do this!” I said, loud enough for everyone to hear just as the massive Ogres leaned forward and roared.

  The pure ferocity of the sound was nearly overwhelming as globules of spittle flew from the Ogres hard thick lips to splatter all over us. It was almost like I could feel the soundwaves like a physical force impacting my body as I weathered the bellow. In my peripheral version, I caught hurried movements of several people sprinting away. A quick glance to either side of me showed that it was a mass exodus of our line. Neristhana, Kenneth, Glen, Zhou, Darkhorse, and Tinyr had just turned around and began running away as fast as their legs could carry them. I was just as confused as Sarka, Thomas, Kenzie, the Cobra Kai twins, AJ, Hefe, and Bonnie Smash, until Helgath’s voice rang out in raid chat.

  “Let them go!” Helgath’s shout of command stopped the rest of us in our tracks. “They have been Feared by the Ogres Intimidating Shout.” As everyone paused to look at the slim Half-Orc in surprise, she explained without taking her eyes off of the enemy before us. “There is nothing any of us can do for them until it has run its course, except to focus on the enemy before us and prepare for battle!” Seeing the sudden comprehension dawn in everyone’s eyes, I turned to face the Ogres’ line once again.

  “Come on, everyone,” I said, my voice taking on a severe tone. I’d have to ask Helgath about the Intimidating Shout later, I silently thought, making a mental note as I reached for my crowd control spell, Zombie Hands, before continuing. “We have a job to do.”

  There was no mental barrier this time around as Helgath helped me to craft the spell to cover the Ogres formation directly in front of us. The impervious looking pair of Elite Champions in the lead were just hefting their shields and preparing to strike with their raised weapons, when a twenty yard long and twelve yard wide swath of rocky gorge sprouted Zombie Hands. While none of the Zombie Hands were large enough to do more than annoy the Ogres and gum up their clawed feet with rotting flesh, it did its job of momentarily distracting the enemy.

  Without sharing a word, we blasted out Magnify Damage across the same area. While the combination of spells did no actual damage to the iron-encased Ogres, we weren’t finished yet. As the immense Elite Champions began stomping their tree trunk-like legs to crush these annoyances, Helgath helped me to cast the next spell quickly as we focused our magic into the corpses strewn about the leading Ogre troops clawed feet.

  Immediately, multiple explosions rocked the Ogres formation as the strewn Orc corpses were detonated by Dark magic. The best part of the Corpse Explosion spell was that it did a straight six-hundred percent spell damage along with an extra twenty-five percent damage on top of that due to the Magnify Damage spell. While the Ogres resistance was extremely high, it didn’t protect them from everything as their entire formation was thrown into chaos. Basically, the Orcs’ entire bodies, including their solid bronze armor, were instantly turned into make-shift fragmentation grenades. While the Elite Champions howled in fury and pain, each of their hit points dropped between six to eight thousand points in the proverbial blink of an eye.

  The stench of blood and burnt meat filled the air. In addition to that, chunks of viscera covered the Ogres like they’d showered in intestines and chunks of flesh. It was a truly gruesome sight while the immense armored creatures whirled around in the fifteen seconds of confusion, searching for the unseen enemy that was hurting them.

  Even though the attack was visually impressive and a success for what it was, it didn’t help the sinking feeling growing in the pit of my stomach as I realized that altogether the combined AOE damage wasn’t even ten percent of the Ogres’ total hit points. Not that I’d truly expected anything more. Still, it was terrifying how strong they were as I charged the enemy with Sarka and Helgath at my side.

  On the other side of the gorge, Thomas and the Cobra Kai twins were rushing the Ogre on the left with Kenzie a step behind them. Though I couldn’t see them, I knew AJ, Hefe, and Bonnie Smash were taking up the rear. Though it was a relatively pitiful force for what we were up against, I was proud of my friends as we engaged the enemy as one.

  Luckily enough for us, the pain of the explosions had caught the Elite Champions completely by surprise. I wasn’t sure if that was because they hadn’t really thought of us as being dangerous or if it was simply due to not being easily damaged. Either way, we each used that to our advantage the best we could.

  Breaking out ahead of Helgath and Sarka, I leaped through the air to sink the Dark Blade of Lord Kayden into the gap between the right Ogre’s backplate and pauldrons as I mentally triggered Backstab. While it was an impressive strike, to my shocked horror the blade barely sank six inches deep into the Ogre’s upper shoulder before stopping. As my feet helplessly kicked the empty air for traction, I belatedly realized the precarious position I was in a split-second before Helgath and Sarka attacked the back of the Elite Champion’s immense knee.

  A bellow of agony drowned out everything around us as the rest of the Elite Champions heads whipped up to look at their squad mate. As the pissed-off Ogre spun around to face its attackers, I was somewhat disappointed at the lack of a reaction from my strike as I was thrown free of the Elite Champion’s back like an unwanted rag doll. My momentary disappointment was replaced a second later by abject terror as I slammed to a stop against the next Ogre’s iron helm and armored shoulder.

  There was that split-second thought of how fucked I was going through my mind as we just stared at each other in stunned shock. It was a brief hesitation that seemed to stretch on forever as our brains tried to make sense of our various situations. For me, it was that I was now within the Ogre formation and in a precarious position. For him, it probably felt like he had an insect that needed to be squashed in his face. Sadly enough, we both reacted at about the same time, which, for all intents and purposes, wasn’t shabby for a dumb Ogre, I thought, as everything happened at once.

  I plunged the Dark Blade of Lord Kayden into the Ogre’s eyeball a second before the Elite Champion roared and drove me and his spiked armor pauldrons into the rocky side of the gorge with bone crunching force. Somehow, I kept a hold of my blade as the massive iron helm jerked back out of reach as hot blood splattered across my face, while the Ogre howled and blindly ground its spikes up and down to crush my body.

  My luck held out as I braced my Black Coral Iron-reinforced Defender between me and the Ogre’s snapping fangs as it blindly tried to bite me in half. While that was going
on, the iron spikes on the pauldrons mostly stopped me from being crushed to bloody paste as my ribs dangerously creaked from the smaller spikes being forced into my body. Surprisingly enough, I didn’t even notice the pain as I sought to keep my shield between the snapping fangs.

  I felt like the children in the original Jurassic Park film where the T-rex was trying to eat them through the SUV’s busted out moonroof. You know the scene. They’re on their backs screaming and pushing the glass against the dinosaur with their hands and feet as it snaps at them trying to eat them. That’s how it was for me … including the screaming part … only, I was jabbing the Ogre in its thick lips as it tried to rip my head off.

  By now, both Ogres were at the front of the formation were bellowing in agony and rage which threw the whole group into a ruckus. The next Ogre in line tried to help its buddy. Instead of a cleaver sword though, it had a giant javelin that it was trying to club me to death with. Due to the chaos within the Ogres’ ranks, it mostly just smacked the Elite Champion it was trying to help in the back of the head along with some massive Ogre in the middle of the formation in a blue-tinged breastplate, which, as you can guess, didn’t go over well.

  Honestly, I think that was the only thing that saved me. As the Ogre Commander yanked its subordinate back and away, the Elite Champion I was connected to finally had the room it needed to back away from the side of the gorge. Once again, everything happened in a blur of action that I could barely follow. Hitting myself with another Regenerate as I flopped to the ground, I managed to roll away from the side of the gorge as the Ogre went berserk.

  This one-eyed bastard was holding an oversized javelin and shield along with the rest of the Ogres behind him. That’s when it hit me what had happened to our shield wall earlier. The first Ogres must have chucked their javelins and drew their cleaver swords before I got a look at them. That unique set of circumstances was probably the only thing that saved my life. The Elite Champion’s aim seemed to be off as he jabbed the point of the javelin down at me while I rolled on the ground with my shield and sword. If his aim hadn’t been off due to having his eye poked out or if he’d had his cleaver sword out, there was no doubt in my mind that it would’ve been game over.