That Wasn't the Plan

by Jason Cheek

  As the main body rose into the air to continue the attack, we incredulously watched the monster’s ravaged head flopping uselessly on a small hunk of skin and meat as its blood sprayed into the air like a geyser from its nearly decapitated head. This was obviously a conflict between in real life damage and in-game rules. The nearly severed head should have been an instant kill, but the game’s mechanics said that as long as the monster had hit points and a head it was still alive. Hence, this unnatural amalgamation was the results of the conflicting rules.

  Nonetheless, the fountain of blood and Helgath’s magic attack was stripping away the last of the serpent’s remaining Hit Points. It would be dead in another few seconds, but I wasn’t about to let the creature get off a final attack or, for that matter, needlessly suffer. With an overhead strike, the Vampiric Bastard Sword of Slaughter severed through the remaining flesh, beheading the serpent and putting it out of its misery. Though, that didn’t save me from being hosed down with warm blood from head to toe as the living coils spasmed in death. Wiping the blood from my lips with the inside of a relatively clean forearm, I turned to help my ladies.

  ‘Neysa is down!’ Helgath’s mental voice urgently reverberated in my head as she anxiously raced to the Silver Dire Wolf. As she reached Neysa’s side, I’d already finished casting a Cure Disease, Regeneration, and Holy Shield.

  ‘She was stunned and poisoned from the serpent’s Sneak Attack,’ I explained, hitting the Half-Orc with a Regeneration and a Holy Shield, before the shit hit the fan. ‘Give her a second and she’ll be back on her feet as soon as the Stun wears off.’

  ‘Thank you, Master,’ Helgath replied, without a second thought as the stress of the situation made her fall back into her old speech patterns.

  ‘Don’t call me master,’ I softly chided my soulmate, as Sarka and Tinyr ran past me to strengthen the undead line that was slowly taking shape. Turning to face the approaching horde, I quickly cast a Holy Shield and a new Regeneration on myself, before joining Yun and Unalia who had just come to a stop behind their teammates.

  None of them even spared a glance at the massive serpent coils lifelessly spasming on the ground as they prepared to repel the oncoming monsters. In that second, I couldn’t have been more proud of their gaming professionalism. Without hesitation, Unalia began sending an arrow storm into the front ranks of the Elite Stone Deer as I tried to come up with a working plan. Just then, another swath of arrows joined the Ranger’s as Fylreh came to a thundering stop behind me.

  “A Scout’s job is to die if necessary to keep the herd safe.” The filly’s stern voice stated in no uncertain terms as I sheathed the Vampiric Bastard Sword of Slaughter on my back. “Your choice to come to their rescue has doomed us all!”

  That was one thing about Fylreh, for better or worse she never held anything back, I thought with a savage grin. Before I could snap back at her, Yun caught my attention.

  “Ice Barrage?” He questioningly shouted. Looking over at him, I saw that his eyes were as big as saucers as he held up his arms preparing to cast. I understood his fear. No caster wanted to be in the middle of a melee fight, but, as a plan began taking shape in my mind, I realized that slowing these bastards down too soon would get us all killed.

  “Not yet,” I called back, ignoring the alarmed look on his face. “First we’re going to hit them with a Frost Nova.”

  “Frost Nova?” Yun incredulously asked, in a strained voice as he eyed the approaching horde. “They’ll be right on top of us!”

  “That’s what we want.” I assured him, as the thunderous hooves made it nearly impossible to be heard. Even though Yun didn’t understand why we were holding off on our magical assault, he reluctantly gave me a shaky nod as he readied his sword and shield while Neysa and Helgath joined me.

  Taking a quick glance over my shoulder, I saw that the first few Uten Syn players were just beginning to crest the ridge. Unfortunately, that meant my friends and I would be forced to face the initial charge alone. Five players, three people of The World, and twenty zombie pets against ninety-eight elite mobs with over half of them equal to us in levels. So yeah, basically it was impossible odds. Nonetheless, I did my best to give us a chance to survive.

  “Why the fuck aren’t you attacking?” Sarka shouted at Yun and I, as she watched the horde of monsters close to within twenty yards of our line. The look on Tinyr’s face said that he was in total agreement as the warrior woman continued shrilly. “What the hell are you waiting for? Freaking do something!”

  “Not till they’re three yards out!” I shouted at Yun, otherwise ignoring his anxious looks as a few of the Elite Large Stone Deer went down under Unalia and Fylreh’s withering barrage. The monsters died almost instantly as the rest of the herd trampled them to death. It made me wonder what was driving them so strongly to attack. Was it that they’d aggro’d on our group or where they fleeing the packs of predators that were chasing after them. Not that it mattered at this point one way or another.

  It’s hard to explain the feeling of standing in front of a massed stampede heading directly for you. Each of the galloping deer were the size of a terrestrial horse and the power of their hooves striking the ground together sounded like rolling thunder from the worst lightning storm you’d ever went through. It somewhat reminded me of a Saturday morning cowboy show, but there was no way that a two-dimensional screen could match the absolute fear that the sight of the charging horde evoked inside a FIVR game.

  Three yards ahead basically meant the stampede was directly on top of you. It meant waiting until they were close enough to be able to strike them with my two-handed blade. Tinyr and Sarka were yelling at the top of their lungs as I held my arm over my head to help signal the release of the spell. If we didn’t do this right, it would fuck everything up. As soon as the monsters hit the four yard mark, my arm dropped signaling for Yun to attack.

  “Frost Nova!” We both shouted out the spell’s name as a wave of ice shot over the front of the stampede. A split-second later, I released the Light Word of Censor at the far right side of our line as that side collapsed. The results were immediate. The front ranks of the elite herd in front of my friends were frozen in place. The far right side of our line where no one but zombies were standing was bowled over by stunned, tumbling bodies as I screamed at Yun. “Channel Ice Barrage now!”

  The results were instantaneous … and surprising for my friends, to say the least. They watched with their mouths hanging open as the middle part of the stampede crashed into the frozen front half. Well, everyone but Yun who was busy raining death down on the mass of bodies. The initial impact was something akin to running face first into a cement wall, but, as soon as the frozen monsters took damage, they were released from their icy prisons to collapse onto the ground in a shrieking pile of flailing legs and hooves.

  Before the rear of the herd knew what was happening, they were trampling their fellow monsters to death. Sharp hooves shattered bones and tore through thick hide as they strived to leap over the blockade of bleeding and broken bodies in front of them, while others lowered their stoned horned heads to bully their way through. In the end, most only managed to snap their legs or tumble to the ground in a pile of limbs as the remaining portion of the stampede turned into a forty car pile-up on a ‘CHiPS’ episode. The only things missing were the massive explosions and flames everywhere.

  The Ice Barrage spell was perfect for a situation like this. It was low mana usage, high damage, and reduced speed that could be channeled for thirty seconds. Working together, Yun and I were able to cover a twenty square yard area that completely blanketed the shrieking herd. The handful of elite Large Stone Deer that managed to make it through that hell was immediately taken down by the line of zombies. As the last deer keeled over dead, Sarka’s voice hollered in warning as the predators came sweeping around the sides of the massive AOE.

  “We have incoming!”

  Glancing over my shoulder, I saw that the first few Uten Syn players were just s
tarting to crest the ridge. I’ll give this to the noobs. Instead of running away, they began running down the slope to fight as the elite Large Rock Wolves and Elite Fanged Tarpan Striders crashed into our thin line. After playing so much together, I didn’t have to say a word to Yun as we both released a Frost Nova.

  It was crazy as hell on one level. Real world mobs would have gone for the injured herd of dead or dying Elite Large Stone Deer, but in the game, monsters acted differently. Instead of fighting each other, the creatures would attack players and the people of The World first … or both at the same time. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure how that worked now that I was thinking about it. Nonetheless, it explained why the packs of predators were looking to drag us down, instead of going after the injured mobs.

  “Hold the line!” I shouted, as I slid the Black Coral Iron-reinforced Defender from my back and ripped the Vicious Executioner's Axe of Cruelty out from where it hung on my belt. With a nod to Neysa and Helgath, I waded into the monster-popsicles with my hand axe leading the way as I mentally ordered my zombies to keep defending me while holding their defensive formation. Stepping up to the first Elite Fanged Tarpan Striders, I struck the four-legged creature’s neck as my weapon’s special attack proc'ed, decapitating the mob with one hit.

  Decapitating was somewhat of a misnomer, since the creature just exploded into a pile of frozen slush from its instant death. I guess I should have expected that from my experience hunting Razor Rabbits my first day in the game. Whatever, wiping the oozing viscera from my face, I stepped up to the next frozen lizard while drawing my hand axe back for the next critical strike, when the eleven unfrozen predators leaped between their frozen packmates to attack.

  I gasped in pain as I caught the first Elite Fanged Tarpan Strider on my shield. The thing was as big as a horse. Combine that with its full body lunge and it felt like I’d tried to shield check a brick wall. Somehow, I shoved the monstrous creature back as its claws reached around my shield to slash at my Black Coral DarkCuirass. Thankfully, the armored back plate held up to the savage attack without issue as I gave a mental “thank you” to Hollysharp for looking out for me.

  Honestly, if not for the inhuman Strength I’d gotten from my Nightmare stats and all of my additional buffs, the hit would have blasted me off my feet. Even so, the entire left side of my body felt numb from the impact. Somehow though, I managed to lift the creature up high enough to Execute another of its frozen packmates with my hand axe just as another monstrous lizard leaped at me over the top of another of its frozen brothers.

  Luckily enough, I had just enough of a warning to slam the monster into the ground with a backhanded blow that used the strength of my entire body. The armor piercing spike on the backside of my hand axe punched through the lizard monster’s scaly back, while the force of the blow slammed the monster hard into the icy ground at my feet where another of its packmates was clawing at my armored legs.

  The enemy tearing at my shield was tackled to the ground by one of my zombies as I stomped on a clawed hand tearing at my legs. A whack from my hand axe severed another attacker’s scaly limb, allowing me to break free of my attackers and launch myself at the next nearest frozen monster. Another lizard shattered into a pile of frozen goo as my weapon’s special attack proc’d again, while a pair of my zombies leaped on top of the monsters trying their best to drag me to the ground.

  Shouts and screams rang out around me as I went for the next frozen monster. My friends and companions were fighting for their lives against overwhelming odds as the shit hit the proverbial fan. Next to me, Neysa and Helgath were struggling for their lives against three vicious lizards. Further back, I saw Fylreh rearing into the air as her hooves hammered at a pair of Elite Large Rock Wolves snapping at her forelegs as her scimitars hammered at the monstrous lizards clinging to her broad back.

  I sent a pair of zombie pets to help my soulmates and another trio to assist Fylreh, when I realized the gaping hole in my plan as a group of Elite Fanged Tarpan Striders leaped on to my armored back. The impact sent me stumbling towards my next frozen target as I somehow kept on my feet. Ignoring the fangs snapping at my armored head and the claws ripping at my body, I Shield Bashed another oversized lizard away that was springing at my face. Every frozen enemy I slaughtered just created more holes for the enemy to rush me through. Not that I was about to stop, since I couldn’t beat the instant deaths I was achieving with each swing of my axe.

  The shriek of fangs scraping metal came to my ears while slashing claws tore shallow rivulets down my back as my armor began to give out under the savage strikes. Somehow, I managed to Shield Bash aside another oversized lizard lunging at my face. Instead of hitting the monster straight on, this time I angled my block to redirect the lizard’s flight behind me as I lined up my hand axe for the next frozen lizard. Before I could swing my Vicious Executioner's Axe of Cruelty again, the frozen prison holding the monster evaporated before my eyes. “Fuck my life!” was ripped from my lips as the remaining monsters leaped on top of me with angry chuffs.

  I lost track of time as I battled for my life. The giant lizards fought to pull me to the ground while they tore into me with a feral intensity that only a wild animal could match. Zombie pets leaped on my attackers’ backs as I hacked away at anything I could hit. One of the monsters managed to get between my shield and breast plate, but I managed to get my shield hand on top of its head and cast an Enhanced Shocking Grip before it could rip out my throat.

  Although the spell didn’t kill the fierce beast, the sudden brain-fry stunned it long enough for me to shove it away. With a wordless bellow, I hammered the oversized lizard into the ground with the edge of my shield. My hit points were down to around half, when Neysa and Helgath began pulling the two remaining lizards off my back. I could feel the Half-Orc’s magic as she shredded the creatures’ bodies from the inside, while I did my best to keep the three lizards … when I suddenly remembered my spells’ cooldowns were up.

  “Frost Nova!” I shouted out at the top of my lungs as a wave of ice washed over the monsters around me. There was no need to verbalize the spell, but it warned my team what was happening as I quickly studied the raid’s stats and saw my friends were near death. Two swings later, I was staggering out of the circle of frozen monsters to see my friends buried under a seething mass of grayish-black wolves.

  I cast the only spell I had left that could be of any help and sent the handful of remaining pets I had left racing over. Instantly, a golden glow came over the piles of monsters as my spell Light Word of Censor stunned and damaged everything in a five yard radius. Even though I couldn’t see my friends, I began selecting them from the raid menu as I cast Regeneration as fast as the game would allow me. I was still casting support spells, when I saw another pack of Elite Fanged Tarpan Striders heading towards us.

  When I say heading our way, I meant they were directly on top of us. There was no time to think of a better plan, so I did the first thing that came to my mind. Hitting the new pack with a Magnify Damage spell, I began channeling Ice Barrage on top of myself and my soulmates seconds before they hit us. Within seconds, I was buried under a pile charcoal-colored scales of Elite Fanged Tarpan Striders.

  It’s impossible to describe the horror of being the focus of a feeding freeze by a pack of savage monsters. Their vicious growling filled my ears as white fangs snapped at my face with the overwhelming stench of rotting flesh while powerful claws tore at the parts of my body that weren’t covered by my shield. A few of the lizards blasted me with some kind of fire breath, trying to kill me quicker. While they momentarily managed to set my arms and legs on fire, the press of their packmates’ bodies put the flames back out in seconds as I scrunched up under my shield as much as possible fighting for my life.

  Luckily, my elemental resistance was more than enough to cancel out the worst of the damage. While my armor was good, there was no way it could hold up to that level of abuse for long as I kicked at the fang-filled maws trying to clamp aroun
d my legs to drag me out from under my shield while I continued channeling the AOE. The terrible pain coursing through my body tore at my concentration as my Regeneration spell kept pumping my hit point bar back to full health.

  The awful plan I’d come up with was brutal to say the least. It counted on me being able to do enough damage to my attackers before they could eat me alive. The Regeneration and Magnify Damage spells were the only aces in the hole that I had time to get into place, before the start of this endurance run. Luckily, the number of monsters atop of me was enough to keep me safe from my own magic. I just had to keep focus on the spell and pump out enough damage to end this before my own hit points hit zero.

  Except for the excruciating agony, the plan seemed to be working. The flashes of the Elite Fanged Tarpan Striders I was able to get showed that their hit points were down to a third when my Regeneration spell gave up the ghost. Thankfully, there were so many of them that they couldn’t all get to me at once and the freeze effect reduced their attack speed by half, which kept the damage somewhat down, as chunks of flesh began being torn from my legs. Nonetheless, I kept channeling the spell. It was that or truly being eaten alive and, to be honest, that was an experience I didn’t want to live through if at all possible.

  Once again, I questioned my decision for taking the seventy-five percent realism while I watched the packs’ hit points drop below half as my own hit points dropped by a third. Even if the plan I’d come up with was working better then I’d dared to hope, I didn’t know which of us would die first as the feral pack let out long chuffs of agony. The onslaught changed suddenly, when the largest lizard I’d seen yet started rearing up to stomp on me.

  Each crushing blow made me feel like a flattened frog as my armor and ribcage creaked from the intense assault. By the third terrible stomp, blood spewed out of my mouth and my lungs felt like they were filling with blood. The creature’s commanding chuff seemed to be telling the other lizards to attack me in a similar way as my legs and feet were suddenly shattered and I howled in pain as my Ice Barrage spell came to a sudden end.