Elusive Prey

by Cheek, Jason

  After I deflected several of the closer shots, the Ogre seemed to lose its head. In a fit of rage, the massive Ogre began stomping the ground in an attempt to end my life as it bellowed out its frustrations to the world. Terrified, I did my best to avoid being flattened like a tin can, but the fucker was smarter than he looked as he backed me up into a hole. As the Elite Champion raised his foot over my head to crush out my life, I got the Dark Blade of Lord Kayden wedged between me and the rocky ground a split-second before the killing stomp came.

  The shriek of agony that came from the Ogre’s fang-filled maw was music to my ears as the Elite Champion yanked its foot back quicker then I would’ve thought physically possible for something that large. I'm not saying that I hadn’t taken a major blow to my entire body, but without the true weight of the massive Ogre behind the stomp, it only managed to crack a few of my ribs along with my Black Coral breast plate. Ignoring the commotion going on between the Ogre and its Commander, I staggered to my feet as my Regeneration spell began to knit my body back together.

  Limping in-between the two Ogres fighting my friends, I was just in time to see them take a beating as they fought for their lives. The Cobra Kai twins were staggering away from the Ogre whose cleaver sword repeatedly smashed into their wrecked shields as Thomas and Kenzie chased after them trying to pull aggro. Before engaging, Thomas spun around to cradle his hands as Kenzie leaped up to place her foot in the make-shift cradle. With a massive heave, the Devil Dog guild leader tossed the Rogue up onto the Ogre’s broad back.

  Instead of being flung off like I had, Kenzie expertly snagged a passing shoulder spike whipping past her head and used it to pull herself onto the Elite Champion’s back. It took a split-second for me to realize what the problem was as I watched the Ogre suddenly turn around and crush Thomas into the ground, before it turned back to the Cobra Kai twins that were nearly dead. The demi-human was completely oblivious to Kenzie whaling on its back as it shrugged off her weapons like they were nothing.

  On my other side, I saw a similar story being played out as well, except that Sarka and Helgath were being helped out by AJ, Hefe, and Bonnie Smash. Not that they weren’t bloody wrecks. Even as I watched, Sarka, AJ, and Bonnie Smash were having Holy Shields repeatedly spammed on them in-between every hit while their Regeneration spells were ticking off every second, but it wasn’t enough to counteract the terrible damage they were taking. Even as I looked on, Sarka got smashed to the ground in a heap. Bonnie Smash was trying to drag her away while AJ reeled from the beating he was tanking. Honestly, if not for the Ogre taking potshots at Helgath and Hefe in-between pounding on AJ, the Dwarf would’ve been crushed in seconds.

  The problem was that no one’s weapons could do more than scratch these creatures’ hides. Hell, even the Dark Blade of Lord Kayden had barely broken the Elite Ogre Champion’s skin and that was with me striking a place without armor. As it was, the Ogres’ hit points were nearly back to a hundred percent simply due to their natural healing during this short fight. Realizing that this was a hopeless cause, I called it right then and there.

  “Fall back everyone!” I yelled in raid chat. “This ain’t working. We’re moving to Plan D!”

  I was just trying to figure who I should help out first, when Kenzie was blasted off of the Ogre’s back. She landed in a crumpled mess twenty yards further up the gorge. Fortunately enough, she hadn’t been blasted out over the gorge or she’d have been completely fucked. As everyone looked around in shock, I turned around just in time to see the Ogre Commander from earlier pushing his way past the two Ogres at the head of the formation. Another wicked swipe from the oversized javelin blasted the rest of the Devil Dogs off their feet.

  “Fall the fuck back!” I screamed, hurrying over to a woozy Thomas as I began dragging him back to his feet. “If any of you die here your gear might as well be gone!”

  That last part got AJ and Hefe’s attention as they finally listened to me. Unfortunately, the Ogre they were fighting didn’t seem willing to let them go as it began flailing at my friends with its cleaver sword in a crazed rage. The situation was turning into a clusterfuck faster than I could keep up with. The rest of the raid tried to pull the Ogres attention as they opened up on the armored demi-humans with everything they had.

  “Get the Cobra Kai twins and get the fuck out of here!” I shouted into Thomas’ ear, as the Ogre they were fighting began limping towards us. Surprisingly enough, that mob was the least of my concerns as I deflected an overhand thrust from the Ogre Commander’s javelin. The blow nearly took us both out as I shoved the Devil Dog guild leader away with a shout. “Get them the fuck out of here, Gunny!”

  As my raid mates cast another Holy Shield and Enhanced Mage Armor on me, I hurriedly recast Bone Shield with the limited mana I had left. As the Ogre Commander’s next overhand strike came at my head, I ducked bringing my sword and shield up in an effort to deflect the force of the blow away from me. The ringing clang nearly crumpled my whole body as all three shields collapsed from the force of the impact. Staggering back, I heard Thomas dragging the Cobra Kai twins to their feet as my raid mates standing along the top edge of the plateau recast their shield spells again.

  I barely had the mental awareness to recast Bone Shield as another overhand strike from the Ogre Commander came rushing down at me. Stepping aside, I locked my shield and sword together as I timed the thrust to deflect the monstrously oversized javelin coming down at my head. A whole half side of my body went numb as the blow crunched into the ground next to me while my shields shattered again from the force of the blow.

  There was a horrible bellow nearby as I glanced up in time to see Helgath with her bloody daggers dropping from underneath the Ogre’s loincloth to join the group. She’d obviously gone for the only vulnerability that her blades had any hope of piercing, aka the fleshy piece of meat hanging between the Ogre’s tree-trunk legs, I thought proudly, as the mob howled and clutched its groin. At the same time, I saw a bedraggled Hefe and AJ stagger out of range of the mob’s cleaver sword. The slim Half-Orc was already a few steps behind them as I breathed a sigh of relief knowing that they were falling back.

  Unfortunately, that distraction nearly cost me my life as the Ogre Commander brought his javelin down again at my head with a roar of outrage. I guess it was pissing him the fuck off that he still hadn’t taken me out. Once again, my Bone Shield shimmered around me along with the other shields from my raid mates just as I stepped aside and threw my sword and shield up to deflect the overpowered blow to the side once again.

  My body felt like it was broken as I reeled away from the enraged Ogre Commander. My shield was nothing but a misshapen lump of iron and bronze that was partly bent around my arm as I coughed up blood with each breath. Even with the Regeneration ticking away to heal my internal wounds, it felt like my body was broken from losing a third of my total hit points from a single blow three times in a row.

  I swore it was like I was in a game of Whack-A-Mole from hell as I hurriedly staggered away from the enraged Ogre Commander, while doing my best to put some distance between us and the other pissed off Ogre that was limping over to join the battle. Though I didn’t have any of the Defensive Tanking skills of a Warrior, I’d trained for years in deflecting and redirecting blows in my martial arts classes. It was almost second nature for me to redirect the force of a much larger attacker. Even though this situation was vastly different, it was close enough that I’d been managing to do something similar with the Orc Commander’s overwhelming blows.

  Honestly though, I didn’t know how much more of this I was going to be able to take, I thought grimly, as I cast another Bone Shield. The effort nearly made me collapse from mana exhaustion as my mana bottomed out. By willpower alone I managed to stay on my feet. Not that we’d ever argued about such things, but this whole ordeal was giving me a new respect for Sarka’s tanking skills. If not for the magic shields being constantly layered on top of my defenses between strikes, I’d have been crushed by the
force of the blows even with the techniques I’d been using.

  As I was mentally thanking my friends for watching my back from the edge of the plateau, I didn’t catch the significance of the Ogre Commander repositioning his hand as he brought the javelin to his shoulder again. I was too busy with trying to catch my breath from the terrible beating, when the asshole lunged forward and attacked.

  It honestly happened so fast that I barely knew what hit me. One second, I was backing away from the Ogre Commander and the next the asshole was chucking his oversized javelin directly at me. If I hadn’t been dealing with the system-shock of having my ass beaten to a pulp, I might’ve been able to dodge the missile, but, in my current condition, I simply took the shot straight on.

  Agony radiated through my body as the force of the impact blasted me up off my feet. I had about a half second to swear at myself for being a dumbass, before I came down smashing into the rocky ground hard. So hard, that I swore the jolt must’ve scrambled my brains good, because it took me a few seconds to realize that I shouldn’t be lying on my back and staring up at the sky with a massive javelin sticking out of my abdomen.

  The pain was so intense that I kind of wished I would’ve just died instead of living through that. Sometimes, I think the developers of The World had screwed that up. That’s probably because the only assholes dumb enough to be playing at seventy-five percent realism were dipshits like me.

  Taking a ragged breath, I looked around the shaft and saw that the fight was going all to hell. While the Cobra Kai twins were staggering over to Kenzie’s unmoving body, Thomas was hurrying back to the fight going on between our people and the Ogres. My mouth dropped open in horror as I watched what happened next.

  While Helgath ran to Sarka’s side to help Bonnie Smash carry the Defensive Warrior, I was just in time to see AJ and Hefe use their classic attack-move on the Elite Ogre Commander. Only, it went terribly wrong, more wrong than anyone would’ve guessed. While Hefe soared at the Ogre with his punch daggers sticking straight out and AJ charged at the asshole’s legs, the Elite Ogre Commander did something that none of us could have ever expected. Well, not when it came to a demi-human. Cocking his head back, the Elite Ogre snapped Hefe out of the air with his fang-filled maw like he was chomping down on a Scooby-snack.

  The scream of fury coming from Bonnie Smash's lips pierced my soul as she left Sarka to charge the Elite Ogre Commander. From the angle I was at, I couldn’t make out what had happening, but it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure the situation out as AJ began whaling at the Elite Ogre for all he was worth. Not that he was really doing anything but destroying his hand axe.

  Forcing myself to look away from the forlorn fight, I tried to do something about my current situation. Being a helpless spectator wasn’t going to help anyone, I mentally growled to myself, as I gripped the oversized shaft with both hands. Screwing up my willpower, I strained with my entire body as I tried to thrust the javelin out of my guts.

  “Gggaaaahhh!” Spots swam before my eyes, as I screamed bloody murder. Still, no matter how hard I strained at the shaft sticking out of my body, it refused to budge an inch. The fucking thing must’ve been halfway embedded in the solid stone, I thought, swearing up a storm as tears ran from the corners of my eyes. Ignoring the agony radiating from my wound, I had another bright idea as I tried to reach up the shaft as far as I could and began to pull myself upwards.

  I can’t even begin to explain the level of agony coursing through my body as I clawed my way foot by foot up the shaft. It was unbelievable that a video game could cause this amount of pain, I thought in horror, while I forced my body further and further up the thick shaft. About halfway up, I learned that my legs couldn’t move with my spine completely severed and partially missing even in a video game as I was forced to endure the deadweight of my hanging body with the gaping hole in my abdomen.

  Reaching the top of the shaft about four feet off the ground, I realized there was no way I could easily get over the end of the shaft. As my eyes lolled back in my head, I refocused on the shitstorm going on with my friends only to see the most fucked up scene ever. It was such a shock that I momentarily forgot the agony I was in as I watched the comedy of errors that led up to Bonnie Smash stealing a page from Helgath’s book of tactics.

  Half of Hefe was still sticking out of the Elite Ogre Commander’s mouth as he repeatedly punched-stabbed the ugly bastard in his thick lips. Hefe must have hit something sensitive, because suddenly the Ogre stopped flailing at AJ and Bonnie Smash and began trying to knock the Gnome away with his shield and the hilt of his cleaver sword. When that didn’t work, it did something none of us expected. Turning its cleaver sword to the side, the Elite Ogre Commander smashed the flat of the blade into its own face.

  The sound of iron impacting iron rang out like a gong throughout the gorge as the Elite Ogre Commander staggered himself from the force of his own blow. It must’ve either killed or stunned Hefe, because my friend immediately went limp while the Elite Ogre Commander teetered into the subordinate behind him. Blindingly smashing his subordinate to the ground, the Elite Ogre Commander stopped himself from falling over. Before he could toss his head back to swallow Hefe’s broken body, Bonnie Smash scooped up an Orc cleaver sword from the ground before ducking underneath the Ogre’s loin cloth and ramming it where the sun doesn’t shine.

  Hefe’s shattered body was expelled as a high-pitched whimpering cry of agony rang out over the gorge that made me flinch at the thought of that terrible strike. In her fury, Bonnie Smash had found the one other vulnerable spot that could hurt these immense demi-humans as she raced forward to snatch her boyfriend’s limp body up in her arms. With a shout to AJ, they began racing back down the gorge.

  Within moments, they’d reached Helgath and Sarka. Coming up behind them, AJ looped one of the Defensive Warrior’s arms around his shoulder as they continued racing up the slope while Thomas skidded to a stop. Seeing the Cobra Kai twins angling for me with Kenzie slung between their shoulders, he hurriedly took off at a run towards me.

  “Keep on going guys,” Thomas shouted, while I weakly fumbled at the top of the shaft. “I’ll help Star!”

  The immense bellow from the Ogres caused everyone to jump as the rest of the troop shoved their way past their downed comrades. As one of the braver Elite Champions helped their fearless leader by removing the blade wedged deep in his bowels, there was an enraged roar that made my blood turn to ice as the immense Ogre shoved the helper away. I swore the Ogre’s eyes burned with flames as he focused on Bonnie Smash’s running form heading up the gorge. With a bellow, the Ogre took off after her at a ponderous gimpy run.

  “Damn Star, I can’t believe you’re still alive,” Thomas said, as he came sliding to a stop in front me. The pain was too much for me to speak as I helplessly watched in horror as the Elite Ogre Commander raced up the gorge. “That Ogre fucked you up big time.”

  Thomas didn’t give me a second to worry about the pain as he wrapped an arm around my waist and grabbed my shoulder to pull me off the end of the wooden javelin. My abdomen released with a sucking sound when he pulled me off the end and blood sprayed out of my torso like a fountain. Gasping from the agony, I somehow managed to not pass out as I got a Regeneration and a Minor Mend Bones spell off, while my friend hurriedly poured half a Healing Potion over the wound, before forcing the rest through my lips.

  I almost felt sorry for the poor guy as he tried to somehow staunch the flow of blood spraying out of me everywhere. While I appreciated the effort, holding a wound the size of my hand closed on only one side wasn’t exactly helpful. Luckily enough, this was a game. Otherwise, I’d have been long dead. By the time the gaping hole in my chest started to seal up, I could feel the ground starting to shake beneath the tread of the Elite Ogre Commander’s clawed feet. Forcing myself to sit up, I pointed a shaky hand over Thomas’ shoulder.

  “Dude, you’ve got to carry my fat ass out of here,” I managed to gasp out, “or we’re so dead
!”

  “Fuck my life!” Thomas exclaimed, as his face turned white as a sheet. As he scrambled to his feet, I managed to sheath the Dark Blade of Lord Kayden, before he dragged me to my feet with one arm around his shoulder.

  The pain nearly made me swoon as Thomas began running for the exit to the gorge while literally dragging me beside him. While my legs still weren’t functional, I began to get more control over my lower body with each passing second. I swear, it was like I could feel the healing magic rebuilding my spine and internal organs as I miserably clung to Thomas’ shoulder while trying to get my legs to function.

  We were passed a second later by a wide-eyed Bonnie Smash with Hefe’s shattered body clutched to her chest. Though his legs were completely gone, Hefe was still alive as he fearfully looked over his girlfriend’s shoulder chanting “Must go faster … must go faster!” Not that I blamed him one bit, I thought, resisting the urge to turn around myself as, a moment later, I felt my other arm being dragged over someone else’s shoulder.

  ‘I’ve got you, War Leader,’ Helgath’s voice sounded in my head, as she did her best to support my deadweight.

  With the difference in sizes between Thomas and my soulmate, I was still being half dragged across the rocky ground at a forty-five degree angle, only slightly quicker than before. Next to us, I saw AJ come huffing and puffing past with Sarka mostly draped across his back. Seeing his questioning look if I wanted his help, I shook my head.