That Wasn't the Plan

by Jason Cheek

  In a swirl of darkness, Sub-Leader Chuzedros joined my friend as her eyes kept watch on Helgath’s and Neristhana’s climb, while the rest of the team took over finishing off the two rogues that had crumpled into a heap on the ground at their feet. Between the damage and shock of the surprise attack and the sudden stop, they were taken out before they’d even realized they were under attack. I swear, it had all proceeded so smoothly that it was like shooting fish in a barrel.

  Seeing that the battle was moving ahead without me, I jumped to my feet and hurried back to the base of the wall. By then, the crew had taken out another group of rogues and were already closing in on their next target. By now, the Chaos Storm Alliance players knew that something was horribly wrong. I could see their fearful faces trying to understand what was happening to their teammates. These were players who were used to being the hunters, not being the prey. The worst part was that they could only catch horrific glimpses of their attackers as they struck.

  It didn’t matter what they did. If they twisted around to fight Helgath and Neristhana who were climbing up after them, then Sub-Leader Chuzedros or Mike would Shadow Step above them and hit them with a Sneak Attack. If that didn’t knock them off the rope, Helgath, Neristhana, or Sub-Leader Chuzedros joined the attack and that would end it.

  The biggest advantage we had was the pure surprise of the Chaos Storm Alliance players at seeing our rogues entering into Stealth while being watched, and the knowledge that we could see them while they were Stealthed. Whatever coordinated counter attack they might have come up with was blown out of the water before it could get started by those simple facts. The only way they could’ve hurt us would’ve been if the raid leaders at the top of the wall had chosen to cut the ropes. The only problem was that those leaders were too busy fighting Domenic’s defenders to create a foot hold for the rest of the raid at the top of the wall. Without the reinforcements coming up behind them joining the fight, they’d be wiped out in no time. It was that conflict that gave us the opening we needed to quickly climb the wall and enter the fight on the side of the fortress’ defenders.

  By the time Mike had reached the top of the wall with Sub-Leader Chuzedros, they’d straight up slaughtered or knocked down a total of thirty players with the rest of our team’s help. I wasn’t sure what was happening when they disappeared over the top of the wall. Were they just hyped up on hunting down the enemy or had they run into serious resistance? The answer came a second later when Helgath and Neristhana cleared the top of the wall.

  ‘Come quickly,’ Helgath’s mental voice urgently sounded in my mind as soon as she’d taken in the situation. ‘We hold the top of the wall for now, but there are many enemies!’

  “Hurry up,” I urgently said, as I leapt for the rope and began climbing. “They need us up there now if they’re going to keep their foothold!” The Devil Dogs were a step behind me as I focused on the top of the wall, while mentally crossing my fingers that we’d make it in time. My high Strength and Agility attributes allowed me to muscle my way up the rope, without using my legs, at an amazing pace.

  I’d cleared the top of the wall in less than half a minute with Kenzie, Zhou, and Darkhorse right behind me. Leaping over the battlement still in Stealth, I dropped between Helgath and Neristhana with a relieved sigh as I took in the tactical situation at a quick glance. A second later, I felt the Devil Dogs’ presence as they dropped into a crouch behind me.

  Luckily for us, Neristhana and Helgath had already cleared out the enemy sentries that had been stationed atop of the battlements to keep the way clear in case the main assault force had to retreat. Blinking around the battlefield were Mike and Sub-Leader Chuzedros who were using their Shadow Step and Slip into Stealth skills to take out anyone that looked to be in command. An extremely difficult task in the face of the hundred and fifty to two hundred enemy players that were in a chaotic battle of life and death at the base of the wall.

  “What’s the situation?” Kenzie asked in a professional tone, as she began taking in the situation like a pro.

  That was a good question. It took me a second to understand exactly what I was looking at as I tried to make sense of the interior of the mountain. It was confusing because the inside of the mountain wasn’t a fortress built into the mountain, but a hollowed out alcove with a fortress like structure at its center. That’s when I suddenly realized I was basically looking at a slightly more complex version of the Uten Syn fortress that we’d recovered earlier, which was why the stonework of the outer wall had looked so familiar to me.

  A far cry from the dwarven mountain fortress I thought it was going to be. My imagination had been running more along the lines of something like an Ironforge-like structure from World of Warcraft or a mini-Khazad-dûm like subterranean complex from the Lord of the Rings. Yeah, I know I’m a fantasy nerd, but what can I say? It was the first thing that came to my mind when I was looking down at the entrance from the pass into the valley.

  Instead, Domenic’s Ironheart Stronghold had a few additional internal structures that made it more like a small castle than a single keep. Outside of that central structure there was a courtyard before the walls that covered a much larger area than that of the Uten Syn fortress. Spread out in the field were multiple defensive walls setup as fall back positions, while on the battlements above the main gate was a defensive housing that held a number of ballistae. These devices were responsible for launching the elementals at the enemy in the field. Although I couldn’t see everything from my current position, it still gave me a good perspective to analyze the danger the defenders were facing as my eyes returned to the battle going on down below the wall.

  Even though the majority of the enemy rogues were still in Stealth, the Water and Earth elementals that the defenders were using as pets didn’t seem to have any problems detecting the enemy once they got within a certain range. On the other hand, the rogues weren’t properly equipped to deal melee damage to the elementals. At least, not to the stone elementals. The swords and daggers which were considered a stealther’s bread and butter damage-wise could hardly pierce their rock-like skin, basically it was reducing their high DPS attack damage down to nearly a quarter of what it should have been.

  That’s not to say the players were particularly defenseless. All of them were wielding some high level magic from their guild’s completion of their Nightmare quests. The main problem was that their builds weren’t that of a mage, so while they could get off a few solid magic attacks, they didn’t have the Intelligence or Spirit to be heavy casters. That, and many of the magic abilities were AOE attacks. More than once, I saw groups of attackers go down from their own ally’s badly targeted Lightning or Flame Strike. Seriously, the amount of friendly fire going on down there was approaching ridiculous levels. Probably due to the massive egos that were within the different groups below fighting for dominance amongst themselves.

  Behind the elementals were a mixed force of defenders that were rushing forward to box the players in. At least, that’s what it looked like tactically when my eyes swept across their hurried movements. There were seven groups of three and one group of four surrounding the rogues’ shrinking beachhead. The group of four, I figured, was probably the defender’s commander, which I made note of so that I could get a hold of Domenic once we cleared these PKing asshats out.

  While the elementals and rogues battled it out, the defenders worked to whittle the enemies’ numbers down in light skirmishes. Though, with the numbers they were facing, I honestly didn’t understand how the defenders had held out as long as they had. Each group was being pummeled by multiple, high-DPS enemies each. While the armor they looked to be wearing was high quality, it was only scale mail. The only thing I could think of that made any sense was that they had some sort of shield absorbing the majority of the incoming damage.

  The other thing I found incredibly odd was the make-up of the defensive forces. There was the typical dwarven and halfling warriors one would have expected in Domenic’s dom
ain, since he was a Dwarf-Human halfling. What I hadn’t expected to see were Gnoll Warriors fighting alongside his people as allies. Surprisingly enough, from my quick onceover of the action, the unusual relationship was working out quite well for Domenic’s people, since the Gnolls seemed to be able to sniff out the stealthers and keep them at bay.

  Now these weren’t anything like the Gnolls I’d fought upon the Plains of Atoll, when I’d come to the rescue of Fylreh’s tribe. There were no evil-looking blood tattoos painted into their fur or on their equipment, nor were there any of the typical bones laced into their skin. If anything, the warriors looked like any other humanoid war band you might find amongst the dwarves, humans, or elves. Meaning, nothing like the demi-human war bands I’d run across so far inside The World, except for maybe the Plain Centaurs. Before I could speculate further, my contemplation was crudely interrupted, when a hand slapped the back of my helmed head a little too hard.

  “Earth to McStar!” Kenzie’s annoyed voice rudely brought my thoughts back into focus. “Damn it Star, can you fucking hear me or not?”

  Gah,” I angrily exclaimed, as I ducked my head from the follow-up slap and viciously knocked her arm away. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

  “We want to get down there and kick some ass,” Kenzie explained, “but we can’t do it without you being our personal heal bitch. Are you down with that or not?”

  “I heal you guys once during a fight and I’m now you’re personal heal-bot? What’s with starting to throw out terms like that?” I asked, as all my friends began to laugh at the incredulous look on my face. Getting that from the Devil Dogs was one thing, fucking melee classes always acted that way, but to get that from Neristhana and Helgath was another story altogether. Seeing the accusatory look on my face, Neristhana just gave me a shrug as Helgath gave me a happy grin. While I might hate the term on one level, Helgath knew that I didn’t have any issues with joking around as Kenzie continued nonplussed.

  “I said personal heal bitch not bot,” Kenzie said, acting cocky as hell as she traded fist bumps with Zhou and Darkhorse.

  “If the shoe fits, Lord Stinky, then maybe you should wear it,” Neristhana added with a glint in her eyes. I swear, the little gnomeling was never going to let me live that evening down.

  “You better not get used to it,” I unhappily grumbled at my friends’ and companion’s poor taste in jokes. Even though Kenzie liked to give me a hard time, I knew it was all in fun. Still, there almost wasn’t a worse way she could’ve insulted me as a healer. On top of that, due to some of the ugly shit I’d dealt with in the past, it was one of the few comments that really got under my skin. “It was most definitely a one off.”

  “I swear, you’re somehow even better than Thompson,” Zhou said, half listening to what I was saying as Darkhorse chimed in.

  “It felt like I was invincible,” Darkhorse let out an excited bark of laughter. “Between the Slip Into Shadow skill, the multiple shields, and the Regeneration, they couldn’t touch me.”

  “Wait until you get your Perception I,” I said, giving him a wink as I did my best to let the resentment go. Unfortunately, after this never ending day from hell, I was getting tired and more irritable by the second. Still, I did my best to remain positive. “You’ll never get Sneak Attacked again.” Zhou’s and Darkhorse’s eyes nearly glowed at that prospect, when Kenzie abruptly elbowed me in the ribs.

  “So, are we doing this or what?” Kenzie asked, unconcerned that I wasn’t exactly happy about the term she kept throwing around.

  “Sure, I’m down with one more time,” I said, giving her an evil grin. As I began passing out buffs to the team and the Devil Dogs began pulling up the ropes hanging on the outside of the wall, the sarcasm monster deep in my soul raised its ugly head. “Whatever it takes to keep my slaughter whores happy.”

  “Slaughter whores ...?” Kenzie repeated distastefully, as I clapped my hands down on her shoulders and pulled her over to me like I was giving her a boxer’s massage to loosen her up.

  “You know, slaughter whores, meat sticks, meat puppets … whatever fits,” I said in an unconcerned tone as I did my best to push her buttons. “Those players who’ll kill for their healers and will do anything to get a healer on their team.”

  “I don’t think meat puppet is the term you’re looking for,” Darkhorse said, rubbing at the back of his neck as he gave me a grin. “That’s more like a false online identity.”

  “Well, I can tell you for sure that meat stick isn’t right either,” Zhou automatically began to say, as we all looked at her expectantly. “It’s basically another name for a …,” her cheeks began to burn in embarrassment as she suddenly realized the mistake her mouth had gotten her into.

  “A Johnson, one-eyed monster, schlong …,“ I began to list off the different names that instantly came to my mind, only to have Kenzie cut me off.

  “We get it, Star,” she said with an annoyed tone, as my comments began getting under her skin.

  “Then, I guess that settles it,” I said, leaning forward to speak directly into her ear, while eyeing Zhou and Darkhorse. “Because, if I can be your personal heal bitch, than all of you can sure as hell be my personal slaughter-whores, right?”

  “Yeah, sure Star,” Kenzie agreed without any snark, “whatever makes you happy.” While in front of her, Zhou and Darkhorse enthusiastically nodded their heads in agreement. I guess all of them realized they must have hit a nerve and were trying to backtrack.

  “Are you guys joining the fight or not?” Mike asked, suddenly interrupting us as he Shadow Stepped back to the top of the wall with Sub-Leader Chuzedros at his back. “What the hell is taking you guys so long?”

  “Oh, we’re ready to go,” I said, with a sarcastic undertone to my words that Mike knew all too well. “Kenzie here was just telling me how much she enjoyed having me as her personal heal bitch.”

  “Oh no, you didn’t,” Mike said in a mocking outraged voice, as he gave Kenzie a look that said, “You poor fool,” before cocking his head at me.

  “Let’s just get this over with,” I tiredly said, giving Mike a quick shake of my head to let him know to leave it alone. While neither one of us liked the term "personal heal-bot” and especially not … “personal heal bitch,” I’d said more than enough to get my point across. Besides, Kenzie, Zhou, and Darkhorse weren’t the ones who’d pissed me off about that term in the first place as I looked at them apologetically. “Sorry about that guys. I just have some history with that word.”

  “We’re used to dealing with people’s baggage,” Darkhorse said, giving me a friendly pat. “PTSD gives you a lot of experience with situations like that.”

  “Besides, we all know how Kenzie can get under people’s skin,” Zhou added, as Darkhorse gave me a friendly wink while Kenzie looked away uncomfortably.

  “Sorry about that,” Kenzie uncomfortably muttered, as she turned back to face me.

  “It’s cool,” I hurriedly replied, as I shifted my weight from foot to foot. “Still, friends?”

  “Always, you big goof.” Kenzie laughed, giving me a relieved grin.

  “Ugh, if you’re not going to kiss and make up,” Mike said, draping an arm over each of our shoulders. “Then how about we get this party started?”

  “Oof!” Mike grunted, as we both knuckled him in the ribs. With a knowing grin, he pushed us away as we got back on track. That was his way of disarming uncomfortable situations between friends.

  Chapter One.Thirty-Four

  (Thursday, May 8th / Day 18 of The World.)

  “So how are we going to do this?” Kenzie asked, as she stepped to the edge of the inner wall with Zhou and Darkhorse following behind her with bemused looks.

  “This is going to be different than last time,” I said, giving Mike a nod of thanks, before joining the Devil Dogs.

  “What do you mean,” Zhou asked, as her eyes studied the battle below. “There’s only one way we can enter this fight.”

  “Direc
tly from behind with our back to the wall,” Kenzie said what everyone was thinking.

  “That’s a lot of players to be facing all by ourselves,” Darkhorse muttered unhappily.

  “Yeah, it’s going to be ugly,” I agreed. Nonetheless, I still thought it was doable while I caught Mike’s eye and continued. “Here’s what I was think we should do.”

  At first, everyone looked at me like I was crazy. At least, the players did, but that didn’t mean that Neristhana and Helgath were ignorant to the danger they’d be in as I laid out the strategy. Mike and Sub-Leader Chuzedros were another story altogether. The Dark Elves had the option of pulling out whenever they got in over their heads.

  For everyone else, it was understood that once they committed there would be no turning back. The possibility of being caught with their backs to the wall and a shit ton of PKers in front of them was a very real possibility. The general rule of any PKing brawl like this was that players repeatedly died. It was just a given. But, as I explained further, I saw the entire team begin to nod as I explained the overall strategy and how they’d be coordinating their attacks. We had a small window where we were the ones with a new skill that the other guilds hadn’t caught onto yet. If we were smart, we could make them pay dearly for this lack of knowledge. Seeing everyone’s flushed faces looking back at me at the prospect of what they were about to do, I gave them a shit-eating grin.

  “Let’s move out!” I said, nodding to Helgath, Neristhana, and the Devil Dogs, as they rushed to the wall and began rappelling down the wall into the chaotic mess. At the same time, I laid down on my stomach atop the battlement to prepare for my support role, before glancing at Mike. “Do you think this will work?”

  “I don’t see why it wouldn’t,” Mike replied, as he knelt next to me to watch the rest of the team’s progress. “Once they watch our streams they’ll figure it out, but by then we’ll be long gone.”