by Cheek, Jason
“Just get the fuck out of the gorge, man,” I weakly shouted over to him while hacking up a little blood to clear my throat. “No sense in all of us losing our shit.”
“You’ve got that right!” AJ agreed, as his short legs churned. Before he could pull away, I nodded my head at Sarka.
“What’s wrong with her?”
“Three minute Stun,” AJ explained, before cutting in front of us as the pass narrowed near the top of the plateau.
Yeah, I could’ve looked up the information myself, but I was somewhat distracted, I thought, as an angry roar rang out behind us. This time, I couldn’t help glancing behind us. What I saw made me regret it immediately.
The sight of the Elite Ogre Commander barreling for us like an unstoppable force of nature with the rest of his troopers strung out behind him sent a tremor of primitive fear running down my spine. It was a truly terrifying sight with their heavy iron armor and bestial howls. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the massive fuckers were moving faster than they had any right to be as their strides literally shook the ground. It reminded me of playing chicken on the railroad tracks in front of an approaching freight train and seeing who jumped out of the way first. Whipping my head back around, I screamed in raid chat.
“You’ve got to blow the gorge now!”
“What the fuck, Jay,” Domenic angrily retorted. “I thought you guys were going to buy us time. All of the Moonshine Elementals aren’t in place yet!”
“Well you better get them placed the best you can in the next twenty seconds,” I shouted back, “or it’s fucking game over!”
“It’s not going to do anything if they’re not set up properly!” Domenic argued, as he began shouting commands to his Dwarves in his personal group chat.
“Well, it’s that or having us all slaughtered by Ogres!” I shrieked somewhat hysterically, as I used the last of my mana to hit myself with another Minor Mend Bone and Regeneration spell. Once again, the mana depletion made me feel like I was going to pass out as my head lolled back and forth while I was still being dragged up the gorge. My head cleared just in time for me to hear Domenic’s reply.
“Quit being a whiny bitch Jay we are going as fast as possible," Domenic mumbled peevishly just loud enough for us all to hear. "Gah!” the wordless exclamation said it all, as Dominic finally looked down into the gorge to see what was going on. “Those things are Ogres?” He demanded to no one in particular. Suddenly, he seemed a lot more motivated to do what I’d said even as he began waving his arms around at his people. “Get the fuck out of there, we’re blowing it-” that’s all I heard of Domenic’s conversation, before he switched chats.
For those of us racing up the slope to the plateau, the way was much steeper here and forced regular-sized people to climb up on their hands and knees. Luckily, Krishna, Angie, and several other Uten Syn guildmates along with my companions had come down the last part of the climb to assist us. They physically carried Sarka the rest of the way up by passing her between helpers while AJ quickly climbed up behind her on his own. Bonnie Smash and Hefe were next, but Bonnie simply climbed up with her boyfriend in her arms instead of handing him up. While we approached the base of the climb, urgent screams suddenly came from above as Ogre javelins began flying over our heads to smash into the crowd of players and the people of The World that were helping us at the edge of the plateau.
“Climb up first, Helgath,” Thomas directed the Half-Orc, pushing her ahead as he looked over his shoulders at the approaching Ogres. “I’ll pass Star up to you next.”
“I’ve got this,” I tried to argue, as my friend and soulmate completely ignored my protests.
In the blink of an eye, Helgath had scrambled up the path high enough for Thomas to toss me most of the way up like a sack of potatoes. He was just climbing up after me, when a horrendous series of explosions rang out across the gorge. Flipping around, the three of us watched in stunned horror as the side of the cliff below us and the gorge suddenly began sheering away from the side of the mountain to slide down onto the plains far below.
I’d never seen anything like it before in my whole life. The entire effect gave the impression that everything was happening in slow motion. It wasn’t so much of an avalanche since the entire swath of rock stayed mostly in one piece. The closest thing I could think of to describe the effect was watching one of those videos of massive glaciers losing an entire sheet of ice. You know the ones on National Geographic. Where the tourists in a boat are watching as a large ice sheet suddenly breaks away to plunge into the ocean. The video usually ends with the massive wave nearly capsizing the boat. It was the best way that I could explain what was happening before our eyes.
The Elite Ogre Commander was having none of that. Only twenty or so yards away, he ignored the rocky gorge sliding away from the edge of the plateau as he began racing towards us. The intense burning hate coming from his red-eyes was nearly palpable as he threw his heavy shield and cleaver sword away and leaped at us. Behind him, the rest of the Ogres began falling to their deaths as the plunging fragmented sheet of stone picked up speed.
Feeling Helgath’s arm tightly wrap around my neck, I felt her begin pushing her mana into me as we both held up our hands and began blasting Ice Lances into the Elite Ogre Commander’s chest. It was the only thing either one of us could think of to do while we tried to forcibly reduce his velocity. As the lances of ice crashed into his iron helm and chest, Thomas climbed up next to us like a crab skittering up the side of a rock with his shield held out before us. He watched as the Elite Ogre’s iron gauntleted hands came even with the rocky ledge that we were perched on. While Helgath and my plan worked to a point, it wasn’t enough to entirely stop the Elite Ogre Commander from catching the edge of the rocky ledge just below us and holding on.
The immense roar of the cliff face crashing down to the base of the mountain drowned out everything else as our ledge was suddenly hanging over a drop off. The intense, rumbling vibrations nearly shook us off our small ledge as tons of stone crushed thousands in the horde far below. While that was going on, Thomas crawled towards the edge of the ledge where the Ogre’s iron-encased fingers held on for dear life. As he drew his cleaver sword, I caught Helgath’s eye.
‘Grab ahold of his equipment belt so he doesn’t fall,’ I mentally sent, as the Devil Dog guild leader began pummeling the Ogre’s fingers. Without hesitation, Helgath immediately scrambled over me to support Thomas as I leaned forward to grab her ankles, while the wind and dust from the tumbling rocks whipped around us like a mini-dust storm.
While I didn’t know if the Elite Ogre Commander could pull himself over the edge with all of his armor weighing him down, I silently agreed with Thomas's reasoning that we really didn’t want to find out the hard way that he could. As the seconds ticked by, I became more and more concerned as nothing Thomas did seemed to break the Ogre’s grip. Several quick swipes from the monstrous demi-human actually forced the Devil Dog guild leader back or risk being sent flying off the ledge.
Helplessly watching as the Elite Ogre Commander managed to get his elbow hooked over the rocky edge of the cliff, I caught Thomas and Helgath as they fell back on top of me from a particularly nasty swipe. As the three of us urgently began blasting the pissed off asshole at point blank range with our Enhanced Shadow Bolts, I felt a weight across my back as someone grabbed onto me from behind.
Glancing back in surprise, I saw an anxious looking Sarka pawing at something strapped to the outside of my rucksack. I understood a second later what she was after as my friend yanked the Pickaxe of Earth free from its bindings. It instantly became obvious what she had in mind, when Sarka climbed over the three of us and awkwardly swung the pickaxe at the stone ledge between us and the Ogre.
While it was a brilliant idea, it became readily apparent that Sarka didn’t have the skill in mining to pull the plan off even with the plus 2 skill enhancement from the Pickaxe of Earth. Though I couldn’t hear the off-key metallic ring, I could tell by how the
metal point skittered across the stone that she wasn’t landing the blows right. There was that “ah fuck” moment as the three of us tried to figure out what we could do to help her, when AJ suddenly leaped over all of us to land in front of Sarka’s face.
Snatching the pickaxe out of her stunned hands, AJ whipped around and lunged for the ledge. Dodging a deadly swipe, the burly Dwarf came to a stop in front of the dangling Ogre and brought the point of the Pickaxe of Earth precisely down on the stone just in front of the Elite Ogre Commander’s forearm. There was no skipping of the metal point against the stone this time around as, to everyone’s surprise, the whole end of the ledge simply sheered away in a solid chunk.
“Gggaaahhh!” The Elite Ogre Commander’s fearful roar echoed all the way down the side of the mountain while we sat frozen with our mouths hanging open, even as AJ stepped up to the edge and casually watched the Ogre plummet to his death. As the rumbling of crashing stones finally came to an end, I had a system window pop open before my eyes.
Congratulations! You have reached Level 43!
You have 7 attribute points available to distribute!
As I minimized the window with a thought, I was just in time to see AJ holding up my Pickaxe of Earth to inspect its properties. He turned around a little too nonchalantly, even as AJ was confronted by an annoyed Light Elf.
“What the hell was that shit?” Sarka demanded. “I didn’t even crack the stone when I hit it.”
“Oh that? It’s a Dwarf thing,” AJ said with a knowing smirk. “You wouldn’t understand.” As Sarka’s mouth flapped open and closed like a fish out of water, he casually held the pickaxe up just out of Sarka’s reach.
“You know,” AJ meaningfully said, as he eyed the Warrior intently. “This is a mighty fine pickaxe for a Light Elf to own.”
“It’s not yours,” Sarka snapped, as she leaned forward and snatched the Pickaxe of Earth out of his hand while muttering under her breath. “’It’s a Dwarf thing,’ my ass.”
“It’s not yours either of yours,” I said, snatching it out of Sarka’s hands just as quickly. While I was interested in what the “Dwarf thing” was too, I knew better than to ask AJ after a performance like that.
As for Sarka and the Pickaxe of Earth, even though we didn’t talk about it, I still knew she was annoyed at herself for letting that go earlier without making us roll off for it. I don’t know why it was such a big deal since I’d done a crap ton to help them out. Besides, it wasn’t like she couldn’t use it whenever she wanted to. By now, it was more of a joke than anything else. I was just laying back against the rocky ledge and letting out a deep sigh, when AJ looked over at me in surprise.
“How did we get any experience for killing those guys?” AJ asked, his eyes glazing over as he read the system message that, I assumed, was about his new level.
“Probably because we managed to damage them before they fell to their deaths,” I distractedly said, while popping open my own Character Sheet and pouring everything into Agility.
After that last fight, I realized that my Agility needed some extra lovin. Not only that, if I got it high enough, maybe I’d be able to use more of Mike’s Shadow magic tree. Besides, it wasn’t like I was going to be able to meet the Ogres Strength one-on-one anytime in the near future. Taking one last glance over my Attributes to confirm that everything looked right, I dismissed the window with a thought.
Over the last six hours of fighting, I’d gained three levels and had given up on trying to save any of my Unassigned Attribute Points. Fighting against the Orcs had forced me to reconsider my strategy for saving everything up for Intelligence. One enemy with an invulnerability or a long battle that used up all of my soul stones and I would’ve been all but useless without my other skills and abilities. So, throughout the constant fighting, I found myself rounding out all of my stats nearly across the board. With the most recent change, I’d now stunk twenty-one points into Agility, nineteen into Intelligence, fourteen into Strength, ten into Stamina, and two into Charisma, so that my stats looked like this:
Statistics:
Hit Points: 2,670
Mana: 3,760
Endurance: 2,670
Attributes:
Strength: 114 (+91)
Intelligence: 200 (+176)
Spirit: 106 (+71)
Agility: 141 (+30)
Stamina: 160 (+87)
Charisma: 80
0 Unassigned Attribute Points.
Don’t give me that look about the two points in Charisma. I have a thing about whole numbers with the current exception of Agility because of the current situation we found ourselves in. My internal contemplation about my build was interrupted by AJ's next question.
“What do you mean we managed to damage them all before they died?” AJ asked, not understanding what I was referring to. “We did minor damage against those two lead Ogres and hamstrung the Elite Ogre Commander, why would we get any XP for that?”
“It’s MMO logic one-o'-one,” I said with a shrug. “Those Corpse Explosions I got off at the beginning of the fight damaged the whole squad. All that mattered after that was that they died during the fight.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot about that,” AJ said thoughtfully, as he offered a hand to Sarka.
“Thanks for the save earlier,” Sarka said, as she stood up. As they began talking about the fight, Thomas and Helgath climbed to their feet, before giving me a hand up.
“That was a good fight,” I said, clapping my friends on the shoulders. “I still can’t believe we managed to pull that off.”
“Ugh, now I’ve got to tell Dom he did good,” AJ groaned, as I chuckled in agreement. Domenic was never going to let us hear the end of this about how he saved all of our asses by dropping a cliff on the enemy.
“You’re telling me,” Sarka said, ignoring our byplay about Domenic. It was just easier that way, since she was still pissed off over how he’d acted. “Those guys hit freaking hard. I swear it’s going to take forever to pound out all of these dents.”
“Did you see my shield?” I demanded, holding up the bent remains still wrapped around my arm.
“You’re on your own with getting that shit repaired,” Sarka said with a snort, as I flipped her off.
“Whatever,” I said, laughing in spite of myself. Taking one last look at the horde of demi-humans far below, I turned around with a tired sigh. “Let’s get moving, guys,” Seeing Sarka’s arched eyebrow, I added. “And gals.”
“It’s nice to see you can tell the difference between the two,” Sarka joked, as I began climbing up to the plateau. Seeing several people already waiting to talk to me, I let out a tired sigh.
“Honestly, I really just want to get to Palnisdale early enough so that I can log out and get some decent sleep for a change,” I said heaving another weary sigh.
Chapter Thirty-Three
(Second Assault Group: Star and friends heading to Palnisdale)
‘Don’t you ever leave me out of a fight like that again,’ Neysa worriedly growled in my mind, as soon as we’d climbed up onto the plateau. Immediately, she began urgently checking me over for any wounds. Unhappy sniffing at the palm-sized hole in my chest plate, the Silver Dire Wolf began rubbing her massive head into my neck and chest as I patted her furry neck to console the big baby. Deciding that wasn’t enough to make her feel better about almost losing me, she began licking my face with her rough tongue as I hugged her to my chest.
‘Alright, that’s enough,’ I mentally reassured her, trying to not get a mouthful of Silver Dire Wolf tongue while Helgath laughed in amusement. ‘It was just a fluke and you know it.’
“This is such bullshit,” I heard Hefe’s familiar voice bitching nearby, as I gently pushed Neysa away to see what was up. “Seriously, why do you have to respawn just to recover missing limbs?” As soon as he saw me and AJ standing near the edge of the cliff, he came stomping over with a laughing Bonnie Smash in his wake.
“I’m sure we can make something with all of the
pieces of Orc armor we have, Honey Bear.” None of us understood what was wrong, until Hefe stepped out of the raid and we saw him. Above his waist he still wore his shredded boiled leather armor chest piece and wide leather belt, but below that all that he had on was a set of his coarse linen starter shorts without any shoes. In all honesty, they were more like a tight pair of tighty-whities.
“Nice chicken legs, bro,” AJ said with a smirk, as Hefe went ballistic.
“How the hell am I going to get my gear back if you let that asshole get away?” He angrily demanded, as I looked away trying not to bust out laughing. He truly looked completely ridiculous. “Do you know how hard it is to find a pair of pants and boots that fit when you’re a Gnome?” He didn’t wait for an answer as he excitedly continued. “It’s fucking impossible!”
“I guess Gnome monsters aren’t really a thing in The World,” I philosophically said, as his face turned a deeper shade of red. Hurriedly I held up my hands to stop the explosion I knew was coming. “Look, I can talk with Neristhana-“
“I’m not wearing no female clothing either!” Hefe angrily huffed at my first idea.
“Can you really tell a difference in a pair of pants?” AJ innocently asked, as if he were trying to be helpful.
“Of course you can,” Hefe said, waving his hands at the rest of us. “Guy pants have an opening for your schlong!” We both looked down at our pants for a second, before shaking our heads together.
“See, no special opening for your junk here,” AJ said, showing Hefe the side ties.
“That’s not what I meant anyway,” Hefe argued, as Bonnie Smash put her arms around his neck to console him.
“I think your short-shorts look cute, Honey Bear,” she said in a baby voice, as the rest of us gagged. “Besides, I bet Palnisdale has a shop for Gnomes.”
“That’s right,” Hefe said thoughtfully. “I bet a fortress town like that would have even better gear than what I had before.” He chortled happily as they began walking away, completely forgetting the rest of us.