by Seth Ring
Jumping back to avoid the next round of attacks, Thorn dropped his tetsubo on the ground and gripped the struggling werewolf with both hands. With a growl that echoed around the battlefield, he heaved. Under the horrified eyes of the surrounding cultists and the incredulous eyes of the players behind him, Thorn ripped the greater werewolf in half.
*ding*
“Holy…”
Thorn’s acute hearing could hear the collective gasp from the players behind him as they watched him in shock. So used to treating Nova Terra as a game, many of them had never considered what he had just done possible. The idea of ripping an enemy to pieces was something reserved for the monsters that they fought against, not for players like themselves. This distinction was even clearer when Thorn was held up against Heidi who battled next to him. Every one of her moves was textbook, relying on the abilities that the game had granted her rather than the brute force that Thorn was wielding.
As focused as he was on blocking the four remaining greater werewolves, a part of Thorn’s heart sank. He could pick out the murmurs behind him and knew that if something was not done quickly the gulf between him and the other players would grow wider yet. Thankfully, Mina saw the slight shift in attitude among the crowd of players and launched herself forward.
Sprinting toward the fight, she jumped, using Thorn as a springboard to fling herself into the air over the heads of the greater werewolves. Spinning in the air, the swirling currents of frozen air glittered in the night, drawing all eyes toward her. Thrusting her wand down toward the ground where the unfortunate werewolf that Thorn had kicked landed, she muttered a word and the frozen currents gathered in front of her, forming a shining mirror of ice that showed the image of her target. Just as she reached the highest point of her jump she roared out with as much force as she could.
“Iron Wolves, kill!”
Whether it was their training, or the passion that Mina injected into the moment, or a way to unload the uneasiness that they felt, Thorn did not know, but as soon as Mina’s cry ended, the entire crowd echoed the last word she spoke and surged into action.
“KILL!”
The cry shook the whole town, rattling off of the wooden buildings as it rose to the sky. Together, the ranged DPS players under Mina unleashed a wave of attacks, but instead of targeting the Wolfkin Cultists in front of them, they aimed directly at Mina. Or more precisely, at the [Ice Mirror] she had formed in front of her.
Spells, arrows, throwing axes, and countless other attacks hurled unerringly toward the [Ice Mirror], disappearing as soon as they got within a foot of it. With a sound like the shattering of icicles, the attacks that vanished burst back into sight, directly above the wounded greater werewolf, destroying any chance it had at recovering.
Buried under the storm of attacks, the greater werewolf gave a howl of pain that was abruptly choked off as a burning throwing star clipped its throat. By this time Mina was beginning to fall back to the earth and could feel the enraged eyes of the greater werewolves fixed on her. Sneering, she activated [Blink] just as they started to jump for her, vanishing from where she was and appearing over the heads of the DPS player who had just unleashed the wave of attacks.
Seizing the shift in momentum, Thorn’s voice thundered as he and Heidi pushed the greater werewolves back.
“Iron Wolves!”
“KILL!”
Though most of the Iron Wolf soldiers had joined in when Mina started the chant, their voices were not completely in sync. As Thorn took it over, the bonuses from his Dawn Walker class kicked in, unifying the First and Eighth companies into a single unit.
“Iron Wolves!”
“KILL!”
The pure aggression radiating from the greater werewolves could not help but falter in the face of the player’s chant, giving Heidi and Thorn a moment to breathe. With two greater werewolves down, and everyone acting together, the remaining eight monsters stood no chance. One by one they were cut down as Thorn and Heidi alternated using their invulnerability abilities to tank the greater werewolves’ attacks while Mina and the others kept them contained. When the last werewolf fell, Thorn crouched down and scooped up his tetsubo, thrusting it into the air and leading the players in a howl of victory.
“SoulSeeker, we’ll leave it to you.” Thorn patted the Crimson Dragon Knight on the shoulder as he and Heidi made their way behind the tank line.
“Haha, you got it!” Fired up from what he had just witnessed, SoulSeeker stepped forward, calling for the other tanks to join him. “Tanks! Form up. Let’s keep these cultists off our turf!”
With a deep sigh, Thorn took off his helmet and stretched his neck. Feeling a pat on his side, he looked down and saw Mina’s bright red hair.
“Whew, that was a close one, huh?”
Based on the tone of her voice, Thorn knew exactly what she was talking about. Mina was right. If they had not managed to turn the shock and unease that the players felt at the sight of Thorn’s destructive fighting style into unified aggression, they would have been in trouble.
“Yeah, thanks. That was some quick thinking on your part.
“Heh, I may not be as smart as Velin and Corvo, but I know how to read a crowd.”
“I’ll remember that.” Smiling, Thorn patted Mina on the head.
“Only if I get a raise,” said the Ice Witch as she swiped his hand away with an expression of annoyance.
“Sir, Company Four reporting, we’re ready to swap with Company One.”
Hearing a new voice, Thorn looked up and saw a woman dressed as a cleric saluting him. Behind her were 99 other players, all wearing the Company Four symbol.
“Great, go ahead and swap with Company One. Company One! Swap out and take ten minutes of rest!”
Opening up his map as the two companies switched positions, Thorn updated his map and checked his messages. Seeing no pressing issues, he retreated to where Company One was resting and sat down to think about the next move.
According to the notification he had gotten, killing Gelish could only be done in the dungeon, which meant that he would have to send teams to clear it. However, based on the endless waves of Wolfkin cultists, Thorn was pretty sure that they would have to defend the intersection while they cleared the dungeon.
On top of that, Thorn had a sneaking suspicion that the cultist magic user that the Fifth Company had run into and the 10 greater werewolves that had appeared here were not flukes. Sure enough, about twenty minutes later, another group of greater werewolves appeared, this time in a group of twelve.
“I was afraid of this.” Thorn muttered under his breath as he looked over the approaching enemies. “Mina, we’re probably going to get increasingly stronger waves of enemies the longer we stay here.”
“Ugh, that means we need to send a team to kill Gelish as soon as possible.”
“Yeah, and we’ll need more battalions here if we want to hold this place. I’ll tell Hasta to send another battalion so we can rotate our defenders. We have three companies on the northern side of town, three on the southern side, and four here, so if we had another battalion, we could rotate regularly while we send teams in to try and clear the dungeon.”
“We may need more than that. Every time someone gets wounded it is only a matter of time before they’re forced to log out for 24 hours.”
“Mmhmm. That is true.” Flicking open his messaging system, Thorn sent out a casualty request to the First Battalion and watched the numbers scroll down his screen. “Oof. We are down 74 players, with 105 wounded. That is nearly two companies. Looks like fighting has been fierce at the towers. I’ll request two battalions.”
“What we really need is to figure out a way to clear this corruption.” Mina scratched her head, sending a glance at Thorn from the corner of her eye.
“I mean, we have a way, but it isn’t sustainable. I only have enough sap from the World Tree for 1000 people and then it's gone. We need a permanent solution, or one that is easier to get. For now, let's concentrate on clearin
g this dungeon as fast as possible and hoping that helps.
“Alright, sounds good. Should I put the Titan Squad together?
“Not yet. First, we need to take care of them.” Pointing at the greater werewolves approaching the tank line, Thorn heaved himself to his feet and buckled on his helmet before walking out to meet them.
Chapter Seven
A damp darkness hung over the town, casting a chill that cut through Thorn’s armor. Even the buildings that lined the streets took on a faded quality as if Thorn was viewing them through a thin cloth. Not even the light from the flickering torches was able to cut the mist as they sputtered in their sconces. The feeble burn created small pockets of light that only served to highlight the creepy scene.
Looking back, Thorn saw the final few members of the Titan Squad materializing in the gloomy street. Despite the heavy air that hung about the town, the members of the Titan Squad were professionals through and through, and after ascertaining that they were not in danger, they set about doing a final check of their gear and got into formation.
“We all set?”
“Yeah, I think so. Ugh, this place gives me the shivers.” Mina nodded in reply to Thorn’s question as she looked around.
One of the major advantages of a virtual reality world was that the game did not have to rely on music to set the mood, it could simply inject it directly into the player, an advantage on full effect in the Greyfield Dungeon.
“Alright folks, I’ll keep this short.” Despite the fact that his helmet covered his mouth completely, Thorn’s warm voice was not obstructed in the least. “Our goal for this run is figuring out how this dungeon works. Scouting if you will. We have to clear Gelish from the mansion in the middle of town and take down his two lieutenants. Based on the description of the dungeon it is likely that his lieutenants are roaming, so we’ll want to figure out their patterns as well. While we are not going to rush this, we do need to remember that we’re only here because our teammates are keeping a whole pile of cultists off our backs. Let’s keep on our toes and get to work.”
Letting the scouts take the lead, the Titan Squad began to move out. Thorn stood near the front of the group, behind Heidi and SoulSeeker and next to Mina and Savir. The last time that Thorn had gone into a dungeon, he had not been part of the initial exploration so this time he let Seven Twisted Leaves take charge so he could learn how it was different from a normal dungeon run.
At first Thorn thought that they would move very slowly, but he was surprised to see that the main team was actually moving very quickly. When he asked about it, Seven Twisted Leaves explained that because they were going to have to do this multiple times, speed was the most important thing. Even if everyone died, the goal was to gain as much information in as short a time as possible to allow for future runs to be smoother.
“Commander, we spotted a group of mobs ahead. Looks to be fifteen mobs. Something we haven’t seen before. They’re wearing the red robes but are bigger than the normal cultists and more, uh, ragged? They look like smaller versions of the specialist units that attacked us above.”
Standing at the side listening intently, Thorn leaned down to Mina.
“What does he mean ‘above’?”
“Ah, in the normal town.” Mina whispered back. “We ‘dive’ dungeons, so we always call the normal world ‘above’, even if we are going up in a tower dungeon.”
“Got it, thanks.”
Seven Twisted Leaves’ brow furrowed as he looked at the picture that the scout passed to him. Tapping it with his twig-like finger, he sent it to the rest of the group.
“Anyone know what these are? They don’t look like the big guys we fought earlier.”
“Yeah, those are regular werewolves,” Thorn said. “They are not quite as tough or dangerous as the greater werewolves, but they are still pretty dangerous in a group.”
“Okay, then we’ll deal with them like we would a normal melee mob. Tanks, you’re in charge of keeping them contained, so I want a ‘U’ wrap. SoulSeeker, you are taking point, everyone else engages after the pull. DPS, make sure you are not splashing our tanks, we want to make this run last as long as possible.”
As familiar with the game as he had become, Thorn still had a bit of trouble keeping up with the conversation. It was one thing to talk to the natives who believed the world of Nova Terra to be the real world. It was entirely another to listen to the professional gamers who lived between the real world and Nova Terra. About to lean down and ask Mina what they were talking about, Thorn paused when he saw her organizing the DPS players. Giving a small shrug, he took out his arbalest and prepared to join the fight from a distance.
“Good, Thorn, please pay special attention to the tank engagement. You’re probably going to be our main force against the bosses so while we want you fresh, I really need you to understand how the engagements work.” Leaves patted Thorn on the arm and then walked to SoulSeeker’s side to give a few last minute commands.
The team continued to walk for a few minutes until they came to a small building that looked like a general store. The werewolves were milling around in the street in front of the store, but as soon as they saw the players, they began to rush over with reckless abandon.
“Primary tank, engage!”
Tapping his sword and shield together, SoulSeeker took six quick steps forward and planted his feet. For a moment, Thorn thought he was going to plant his kite shield into the ground like Ouroboros had done when he was still a Holy Guardian, but instead, SoulSeeker pounded his sword and shield together, creating a loud ringing sound. As the wave of sound radiated outward, the heads of all of the werewolves turned toward him, their burning eyes fixed on the crimson dragon symbol on his shield.
[Dragon’s Tongue: Taunt]
The furious charge toward the Titan Squad turned into a charge toward SoulSeeker, but just before they were about to reach him, the Crimson Dragon Knight spun his sword in a circle and thrust his head forward.
[Dragon’s Tongue: Flame]
A gout of dragonfire burst from the red dragon on SoulSeeker’s helmet, rolling over the werewolves who shrieked in pain.
“All tanks! Engage!”
At Seven Twisted Leaves’ command the rest of the tanks rushed forward, allowing Thorn to see what Leaves had been talking about. The tanks on the ends of the line used their charge abilities, pushing past the werewolves in the front until they were on either side of the werewolf who was furthest from SoulSeeker. Using those tanks as anchors, the rest of the tanks surged forward, quickly filling in the line in a ‘U’ shape, with Heidi joining SoulSeeker at the bottom of the ‘U’.
Under Mina’s direction, the DPS players began to pepper the space inside the ‘U’ shape where the werewolves all stood with attacks, quickly wearing them down. With the support players keeping the tanks at full health and the tanks focusing on defending, the fifteen werewolves quickly fell and the loot that they dropped was picked up.
Carefully filing away what he had just seen in his mind, Thorn turned his excited gaze to Seven Twisted Leaves, wondering what else he would learn on this run. Apparently, his gaze was a little too intense as Leaves started edging away from him. The next few fights were largely the same, though against different numbers of werewolves, so Thorn was not able to see anything new, but that only lasted till the fourth fight, when the scouts spotted two of the red-robed Wolfkin standing amidst the werewolves milling about.
“Any idea what they do?” Thorn looked carefully at the image the scouts brought back, searching for anything that would indicate what made these two Wolfkin special.
“We won’t know for sure until we attack, but I’m guessing that they cast some sort of magic.”
“You mean like that skull-waving guy we fought in Treefell Village?”
“No, that was a shaman, or maybe a higher level cultist. I think these guys are more like the one who was casting earth walls at the southern wall. It looks like that might be a wand in the closer one’s bel
t.”
“Hmmm, good catch.” Thorn flicked on his messaging system and posted a message to the lead scout. “Hopefully we can get a clearer picture of it. I’ve asked them to check for any identifying weapons. Ah, here we go.”
The scouts had done a great job getting a better picture, and in it Thorn could clearly see the black crystal-tipped wand that the red-robed Wolfkin carried in its belt. The crystal was long and thin, and the picture was clear enough that Thorn could see sickly green lines running the length of the crystal. Unsure if the color meant anything, he looked at Seven Twisted Leaves.
“Don’t look at me. I won't have any idea until we fight, but if I had to make a guess I would say either darkness or poison. More likely poison.”
“Awesome. So on top of the corruption that the werewolves’ claws spread, we need to be worried about poison.”
“Eh, there are only two of them. Our melee combatants will clean them up quickly. We should not be in too bad a shape.”
Trusting in Seven Twisted Leaves’ ability, Thorn watched as the Fae Druid organized the team for the upcoming fight. Rather than the ‘U’ shape that they had been using, Leaves organized them into a wedge, with SoulSeeker at the front. The support and ranged DPS players were placed in the middle of the wedge, protected by the tanks and melee fighters. Seeing Thorn’s curious gaze, Leaves chuckled and explained.
“The last formation was for containing the enemy, but now, because we want to get to their backline as fast as possible we need to spread them out. This formation will force them to come to us and spread themselves thinner, which in turn will allow our melee DPS to bypass their frontline and get to the squishies at the back.” Seven Twisted Leaves paused to swap two players before continuing. “Squishies are players or mobs that don’t have strong armor. If those two Wolfkin are actually mages, their armor is not going to be great. Squishies normally rely on their frontline to protect them.”