My anger evaporated and without needing a reason, I hugged her. “You haven’t pushed anyone away, not yet at least,” I said softly. “Your job is to protect us, it’s true. But when you are faced with monsters that don’t have an aggro table, those of the player persuasion specifically, you just need to make the best decisions you can and hope for the best. Unfortunately, we are probably going to die a lot before this is over. Like, a lot. More deaths than you can count . . . except for Heath, that guy is like a cockroach, not even nuclear bombs could wipe him out.”
Rose snorted back a laugh, her arms wrapping tightly around my midsection. “I’m sorry for pushing at you so hard. Part of my M.O. when pushing people away is to make it their fault. Your magic being crap was an easy target. Micaela’s poor control of Vision. You get the idea,” Rose replied, burying her head in my chest, hiding her face from me.
“I didn’t take it personally. I agree with you. My magic is crap and it is going to take quite a while to get it up to where it should be. That said, I am working on it. I’m sure Micaela will take training Vision and all her totems more seriously, though you might want to talk to her about it, and by talk to her, I mean ask her questions about how she is training them. You might be surprised by her answer or you might spur her to think about it,” I said, enjoying holding Rose close to me like this. It was nice . . . better than nice.
“Jack . . .” Rose started to say something.
“How about we go on that date tonight?” I asked.
“Okay, but for now, we need to get back to the grind,” Rose said, giving me a quick kiss then letting go of the hug.
I didn’t want to let go but she was right, there was still a lot of work to be done.
“That was so sweet!” Baby gushed, lowering toward us from above. I could see her wiping away tears.
“Oh, Fairy Overlord,” said Rose, smiling sweetly at her sister.
“Right, I saw nothing,” said Baby.
“Good choice,” said Rose. “Now, did you find a bear or rock giant?”
“I found both,” said Baby.
“Great, rock giant first then the bear,” said Rose. “Lead the way, Overlord.”
“Ugh, that’s not going away, is it?” Baby asked, her shoulders sagging as she flew ahead of us.
“If I could give her the title, I totally would,” Rose whispered to me, laughing lightly.
I laughed with her as we followed our ‘Fairy Overlord’ to the flying collection of rocks and proceeded to destroy it.
Olaf, Micaela, and Ash returned with the wagon as promised, though it took them much longer to return than I thought it would.
“Sorry, bloody gates were a nightmare,” said Olaf. “They searched the bears and the wagon before they let us back into the city. Quartermaster Jod was a pain, he insisted on inspecting the meat before we could deliver it to him, then he tried to short us and say we only provided 7 bears worth of meat. Luckily, Ash was with us and with just a look, Jod relented. I guess Ash here has a bit of a reputation. Then we went through that same process to get back out again.”
“Not a problem,” I said, stepping aside to reveal four harvested and ready to load bears.
“You’ve been busy,” said Olaf, picking up the first bundle and setting it in the wagon.
I noticed that one end of the wagon was occupied by the heads, paws and now empty furs.
“Yeah, the heads, furs, and claws need to be brought to a leatherworker to process,” Olaf explained the unasked question. “I figured they could wait.”
“Works for me,” I said, nudging Rose slightly.
“You don’t need to push,” Rose snipped at me, earning a roll of my eyes. “I know, you don’t need to gloat either,” she added.
“I’m not gloating,” I said, I was totally gloating.
“I’m sorry for being so . . . not nice earlier,” Rose started, addressing Micaela specifically.
“Apology accepted,” said Micaela, hugging Rose with her bone crushing strength. “I could never stay mad at our little Rosie.”
“Wait, you don’t even want to know why?” Rose asked, surprised.
“Why what?” Micaela asked.
“Why I was being mean,” Rose answered.
Micaela shrugged. “I have my days where I’m not very nice either. Olaf knows it only too well, don’t you babe?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Olaf, focusing on loading the bears into the wagon.
“I’ve trained you so well, Minion Number 1,” joked Micaela.
“How come she gets to call him Minion Number 1, but I do not?” Vision asked, making his typical entrance, appearing in a haze of mist.
“Wife,” Micaela answered, making the wolf sulk. “Now, I think we have enough bears. What do you all say we hit the south slope before we run out of time?”
“Sounds good to me. Let’s bring home the bacon,” I said, grinning ear to ear as Vision suddenly perked up, his tail wagging vigorously.
“Bacon?” Vision asked, looking around excitedly, his previous sulking forgotten in an instant. “Where?”
I laughed a little at his short attention span.
Ash nodded once, snapping the reigns lightly to get his oxen team moving back down the mountain slope. I was glad to have Ash along, with all the large rock formations that dotted the northern mountain slope and the valley below, I could see it being very easy to get lost along the way.
Nearing the southern slope, the Anvilton side of the valley, I was unsurprised to see the terrain mirrored its neighbor to the north, large jutting rock formations, uneven ground with the occasional bit of shrubbery and the same towering pines. And looming overhead, much like the monolithic hammer of Hammerton, stood the anvil shaped structure, dotted with dark windows, the horn aimed directly at Hammerton.
“Oh, look, it’s a bear,” said Micaela, pointing just off the path Ash was leading us along and distracting me from looking at the surrounding area more.
I couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or not, she sounded as enthusiastic as always, but it felt like that should have been a sarcastic comment.
“Babe, we’re looking for boars, not bears,” said Olaf. “I’m sure the bears are all over this valley.”
“I know that,” said Micaela, drawing the ‘know’ long.
That was definitely sarcasm.
“I was referring to the bear cub with her,” said Micaela, excited once more.
Looking again, a little more than a hundred yards off the path and barely visible, I could see a bear cub in the shadow of the mama bear. Thankfully, the aggro tables for the bears seemed to be limited somewhere between 60 and 70 yards, meaning if we were further away than that, they didn’t seem to notice us.
“I’m totally going to get me another spirit,” said the Minotaur woman, plunking down on her hind quarters and closing her eyes.
“Great,” said Olaf, rolling his eyes and huffing in annoyance. “So, what are we supposed to do?”
“Vision, any boars around?” I asked, looking down at the spectral wolf cub.
“Hmm,” hummed Vision as he scanned the area slowly. “Ooh, there’s three of them, right over there,” he said, his snout pointing to the east of our current location.
“Great, time to bring home the bacon,” said Rose, mirroring my words from earlier and getting an excited tail wag from Vision. One of the great things about Rose, she is always eager for a fight. I could understand her excitement, her ‘Exsanguination’ spell was leveling up steadily from fighting the bears. Meanwhile, I was struggling fiercely to level my own spells. Having an instant cast spell like that without a cooldown was seriously overpowered, regardless of how little HP it absorbed.
“Okay, so there are three of them,” said Rose, creeping up on the small drove of boars.
“How do we want to handle this?” Olaf asked softly, from the other side of Rose.
“I’ll get aggro, take them down one at a time, left to right,” Rose ordered. A momen
t later she was gone, her shoulder then her shields crashing into the largest of the boars, its nameplate read
All around the boars, vines sprouted from the ground, quickly wrapping around the porcine animals’ legs, making it easier for Rose to gather them up.
I may have been frustrated with my lack of progress concerning my spells, but that didn’t mean I was going to stop trying. I cast ‘Lesser Holy Shock’, stunning the Wild Boar and weakening it to physical damage. I leapt in, striking the lead boar with ‘Justice Strike’ softening it to magic for ‘Lesser Holy Fire’, adding the damage over time effect. Then it was just a matter of casting ‘Holy Smite’ and stacking ‘Lesser Holy Fire’ until it died. I repeated the process for the other two boars. It was a little boring, the boars weren’t much of a threat to us with our levels as high as they were and being pinned down by Baby’s spell. I had a feeling that if they weren’t pinned by vines, it would have been a different story filled with three pig missiles darting all over and plowing through us repeatedly until they died, or we did.
The boars weren’t nearly as big as the bears. It was easy for me to lift one on my own while Olaf picked up the other two to carry back to the wagon.
“Are those really going to become bacon and those Hot Pork Buns?” Vision asked as we walked back toward the wagon.
“That is the plan,” I said.
“Can we have some for dinner tonight?” Vision asked.
“We can have bacon if you want,” Olaf volunteered. “Unfortunately, it will probably take a couple days for these guys to be butchered.”
“But we still get bacon, right?” Vision asked.
“Yes, we still get bacon,” Olaf answered.
“Well, well, well, lookie what we have here boys,” a voice said loudly from ahead of us in a thick brogue I associated with Dwarves in World Tree Online. It was coming from near the wagon.
“Uh oh,” said Vision, ghosting from sight.
“If it isn’t the traitor,” said another voice, an accent just as thick.
“Stop, it is not his fault he was born deformed. Take his stuff, kill the woman,” said another, this one sounding more authoritative.
“You are too soft on him, Lieutenant. It is not like he will survive the war anyway,” said the first voice.
I was about to suggest a course of action when I noticed Olaf had taken on a red hue and gained a buff icon.
Rage of the Minotaur – You see red, increasing strength by 50% until all enemies have been defeated. All skills and spells except for ‘Bull Rush’ and ‘Gore’ are locked for duration and cannot be used.
“Uh oh,” I said, mirroring Vision’s statement from only a moment ago.
Olaf bellowed loudly before lowering his head and vanishing from sight, his ‘Bull Rush’ skill activated.
“We should probably help him,” said Rose, equipping her shields and running ahead.
I dropped the pig I was carrying next to the two Olaf had dropped and ran after her. “Baby, get a shield on Micaela if you can,” I called, looking upwards, hoping to spot her. Thankfully, she wasn’t too far ahead and gave me a small nod, letting me know she heard me.
When I cleared the trees, I found a company of six Dwarves aside from our guide Ash. They were doing their best to attack Olaf, but the wild bullman was having none of it. His fists and horns were either smashing or stabbing any Dwarf that came too close to him.
I found Rose keeping the attention of two of the Dwarves, one of which had a nameplate that read
“Baby, vines,” I shouted, pointing to two of the Dwarves that were trying to rush around from the other side of the wagon.
I briefly looked at Ash, the Shale Dwarf was looking left to right as if he couldn’t decide what to do, but I didn’t have time to worry about him.
I leapt, targeting the
“Jack, forget the spells, just stop these guys,” shouted Rose.
I almost forgot that this wasn’t training anymore. This was about the survival of my friends and our driver. With Rose’s permission, I attacked, letting loose my full arsenal, hitting with ‘Ligament Rip’ for the bleed and increased damage he would take, then I hit ‘Impale’ for the additional bleed damage, struck hard with ‘Power Thrust’, plummeting the Dwarf’s health and quickly bringing the him low enough to try ‘Order: Surrender’ on him.
Order: Surrender
Level: N/A
Experience: N/A
Spell Duration: 30 seconds
Spell Cast Speed: Instant
Spell Mana Cost: 25
Spell Effect (Active): You have an additional 40% chance to cause a non-combatant or weakened target below 10% health to surrender.
“Surrender or die!” I shouted, letting the mana seep into my voice and grant it authority to give such an order.
The Dwarf’s eyes widened in panic, looking around wildly before suddenly throwing down his mace and shield then holding his hands high. “I surrender, do not kill me.”
“Coward!” shouted the Lieutenant. It looked like the Lieutenant was about to strike down the surrendered Dwarf, but Rose interceded, stopping the Lieutenant’s battle-axe with ease, her shield taking a lot of the damage. She still took more than her fair share.
I cast a ‘Lesser Heal’ on Rose giving her a small boost to her HP, then Baby cast her own heal finishing the job, bringing Rose back to full.
I turned my attention back to the surrendered Shale Dwarf, casting ‘Holy Shackles’ and effectively capturing him.
Holy Shackles
Level: 16
Experience: 35.65%
Spell Duration: 2-hours 20-minutes
Spell Cast Speed: 5:00 seconds
Spell Mana Cost: 200
Spell Effect (Active): Shackles a surrendered enemy to capture them. Cannot be used during combat.
With one out of the way, I looked back to Olaf. He was taking damage as he battled two of the Anvilton patrolmen, but Baby seemed to be healing him easily.
Seeing the other two were still caught in Baby’s ‘Tangle’ spell, I attacked the Lieutenant, following my normal pattern, trying to deal enough damage to bring him low enough to capture. Then the unexpected happened.
“Retreat!” the Lieutenant shouted, he threw something at the ground causing a bright flash of light before he suddenly turned tail and ran into the forest. Rose and I were left to blink away the spots as he ran. As the spots cleared, I saw a brief look of relief pass over Ash’s face, but it was gone just as quickly as it appeared. I would investigate this later. For now, Olaf was the primary concern.
I saw the two Dwarves that had been running away, hot on their Lieutenant’s heals. Fighting Olaf as they did, left them barely alive making the decision to run the best choice if they wanted to live.
When I saw Olaf starting to stomp after the two that were running away, I was going to suggest Baby use her ‘Tangle’ spell on him, but Rose got there first, ordering loudly, “Baby, bind Olaf. We don’t need him getting lost in the woods.” She then went after the two Dwarves that were still bound by Baby’s vines.
I took a shot at using ‘Order: Surrender’ on the two fleeing Dwarves but they didn’t even slow down as they ran into the woods.
Looking back at my enraged friend, it was clear he was thoroughly angered, tearing at the vines that held him in place. It seemed in his rage induced haze, there was no retreat.
“Baby, keep those vines on Olaf, hopefully if the Dwarves get far enough out of range, he’ll calm down,” Rose ordered, starting in on one of the two still bound Dwarves, her shield impacting with one of them harshly.
I wanted to check on Micaela, but her health b
ar in my UI said she was unharmed. With Micaela alive and mostly safe, I helped Rose subdue the two Dwarves until eventually they surrendered and were shackled. That meant three escaped despite Olaf’s best attempts to kill them and my attempts to capture them.
Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like Olaf was going to calm down despite the three soldiers having retreated or the three prisoners being shackled.
“I can keep casting vines on Olaf, but if I am forced to keep cleansing the poison the vines occasionally cause, I’m going to run out of mana,” Baby warned us.
Ash thumped the side of his wagon to get our attention. He then pointed at Olaf then made a motion of slitting his throat.
“We’re not going to kill him,” Rose insisted, which I agreed with completely.
“Hopefully, when Micaela comes back from her spirit walk, she’ll know what to do,” I said.
Ash rolled his eyes, before hopping off his seat. The Dwarf walked with purpose until he was a good 10-yards behind Olaf. Suddenly, the Dwarf jumped, leaping much like my own skill. When he got to Olaf, Ash’s mallet struck the back of Olaf’s head with a resounding crack and a large chunk of Olaf’s HP disappeared.
I was about to attack Ash when I notice Olaf swaying, no longer fighting the vines. A slight breeze blew in from east to west and Olaf went with it, crashing to the ground. An ‘Unconscious’ debuff with a 10-minute timer attached to it.
Ash looked at the unconscious Minotaur and nodded once, seemingly satisfied with his work.
“That worked,” said Rose, staring in slight awe.
Ash smirked, he then motioned for me to follow him before walking into the woods, roughly in the direction of where we left the boars.
“Okay, Jack, help Ash get the boars. We can wait on Olaf to wake up,” said Rose, assuming that was where our Dwarf guide went. “Or Micaela to wake up,” she added as an afterthought.
I went into the woods, following a little behind Ash. Our rush to save Micaela left a pretty clear path back to the boars.
World Tree Online: The Mountain Valley War: 2nd Dive Concludes Page 9