World Tree Online: The Mountain Valley War: 2nd Dive Concludes

by M. A. Carlson

  “Does the open door mean they are already inside?” Rose asked.

  “Vision, check it out,” Micaela said.

  Olaf could only hope the wolf pup was still around and didn’t decide to follow Bye-bye. He made a note to ask his wife if she always knew where Vision was.

  “Three inside, two large men, they look strong, and a woman. There are two dead Dwarves inside,” Vision’s voice said, coming from all around them.

  “Levels?” Olaf asked. He needed to know what he would be facing once he was inside.

  “The two big guys are level 15, the woman is level 17,” Vision answered, finally taking form running next to Micaela.

  “This is not going to be fun,” Rose said.

  “We need to pile onto the level 17,” Olaf said. “The other two will be distracted opening the gate. We need to use that distraction.”

  “We can do it,” said Micaela, spinning her twin axes.

  “I’ll go through the door first,” said Rose. “Use your ’Bull Rush’ if there is room. If we’re lucky we can stun lock her.”

  Rose ran into the gatehouse first, suddenly blurring from Olaf’s sight.

  Not slowing, Olaf ran inside, seeing Rose beating on a woman with her shields. Each hit Rose dealt was doing decent damage, suggesting the woman, wasn’t setup to take a hit. In fact, her only armor was the light cloth of a blue belly dancer’s outfit, suggesting it provided very little defense. It also indicated she was a spellcaster class. Seeing the stun debuff fading, Olaf charged, activating his ‘Bull Rush’, his horns spearing the woman and taking out a big chunk of her health, the -743-HP was a beautiful thing.

  Bull Rush

  Level: 19

  Experience: 50.00%

  Current Damage Modifiers

  Damage: +29.00

  Skill Stamina Cost: 88

  Skill Effect (Active): An innate inborn skill unique to the Minotaur race. You charge your target like a raging bull, impaling your target on your horns.

  “We’ve been found, hurry up,” the woman yelled, a Russian accent making her sound more menacing than she appeared. She was much more menacing when she did not seem concerned in the least by the damage she just took. “Now, as for you idiots, ‘Repulse’,” she said, a wave of something burst from her knocking Olaf and Rose away from her. “Apprentice Restore,” she cast next, her health refilling completely.

  “Charge!” Micaela shouted, coming to the party a bit late, her ‘Bull Rush’ impaling the woman doing similar damage as Olaf. But unlike Olaf, Micaela did not stop her attack. She followed up with Sundance slashing across Veil’s chest leaving a thin trail of fire, Butch hacking into her shoulder nearly separating her arm, both attacks dropping the woman’s health further.

  “You are a real nuisance,” Veil complained, sounding more inconvenienced than angry. “Repulse,” she cast again, and once again she healed herself to full.

  “This is going to be a problem,” Rose growled, charging in again, this time stunning the woman. “Magic Paralysis,” Rose chanted, the spell taking hold just as her stun faded.

  “Repulse,” Veil chanted again but nothing happened. “Repulse,” she repeated.

  “Not this time,” said Rose, smacking Veil hard with her shields. “Olaf, don’t just stand there, kill her!”

  Olaf didn’t need to be told twice, he shot with his left hand-cannon, triggering his subskill ‘Knee Cap’ to increase the damage Veil would receive. Then with his right hand-cannon he fired a ‘Targeted Shot’ subskill, aiming for maximum damage, seeing the -2,342-HP from the hit was the perfect reward.

  Single Hand-Cannon

  Level: 82

  Experience: 15.12%

  Current Damage Modifiers

  Damage: +82.00

  Critical Strike Chance: +8.20%

  Subskill: Silencing Shot

  Skill Effect: Silence target for 10-seconds Cooldown: 15-seconds

  Skill Stamina Cost: 182

  Subskill: Knee Cap

  Reduce Enemy Movement and Attack Speed: 50% Target Receives Increased Damage: +8.20% Duration: 15 Seconds Bleed Effect: 2 Damage per Second Cooldown: 1-minute

  Skill Stamina Cost: 264

  Subskill: Targeted Shot

  Skill Effect: 100% chance to hit target and 100% critical strike chance Cooldown: 2-minutes

  Skill Stamina Cost: 264

  “I’m going to enjoy watching you die when my friends finish their task,” the woman boasted, now trying to backpedal away, her HP bar teetering just above 30%.

  Rose hit her with both shields, adding another stun.

  Micaela chose that moment to get back into the fight, a fireball whizzing fast at the woman, followed by a loud howl as Butch slammed into her, her health plummeting even further.

  “Repulse,” Veil chanted again, this time her spell worked, the magic paralysis having faded. “Apprentice Res-”

  Vision chose the perfect moment to appear, his jaws closing around the woman’s throat, silencing her completely as he dragged the woman to the ground, vigorously shaking his head from side to side.

  Olaf swung his maul over the top of his head and slammed it down on Veil’s head, removing the last of her HP.

  “Too close! Too close!” Vision whimpered, scrambling away from the maul that nearly claimed his head as well.

  “Sorry, Vision,” said Olaf sheepishly.

  “That wasn’t too bad,” Micaela cheered, kneeling down and excitedly scratching Vision behind the ears, a small reward for doing such a good job.

  “Can you resurrect them?” Rose asked, nodding at the two dead Dwarves.

  “Let me try,” said Micaela, frowning a moment later. “Can’t target them, I think they’ve been dead too long.”

  Rose sighed, “At least you tried.”

  Olaf finally had a second to look around, the room they were in looked like storage if the crates were anything to go by. There was a hallway along the outer wall that Olaf guessed led to the gear room, which should hold the mechanical crank for raising and lowering the gate. The hall probably continued through to the other side of the gatehouse.

  “Enough rest, we need to stop those other two,” Rose ordered, clapping the edges of her shield together in anticipation of the fight to come.

  Olaf rolled his eyes, barely catching sight of a black blur charging right at him. He barely got both arms up to protect himself as he received a bone-crushing blow, his HP instantly chunked down 34%.

  Recovering, Olaf saw the source of his assault. was a Bearman, a black bear by the color of his fur.

  “I’ll keep the other one busy,” Rose said quickly, running down the hall where loud banging could be heard.

  “You die!” Misery said with a thick Russian accent, pointing one furry finger at Olaf. The Bearman wore full armor and spiked gauntlets that stopped just past his knuckles.

  “You first,” said Micaela, her axes striking in tandem into the thick metal armor, dealing damage but not nearly enough.

  “Ha-ha, that best you can do?” Misery asked, backhanding Micaela, dealing damage but not as much as he had done to Olaf. Misery turned back to his primary target to have the great misfortune of staring down the barrels of two hand-cannons.

  “Should have been paying more attention, mate. ‘Double Blast’,” Olaf said, squeezing both triggers and decimating the Bearman’s HP but not killing him. Unfortunately, the Bearman didn’t seem phased by the attack as his uppercut to Olaf’s chin lifted the Minotaur from his feet, another 22% of his health wiped out, in addition to leaving a dazed debuff.

  Olaf vaguely saw Micaela going toe to toe with the Russian Bearman through blurred vision, her axes striking repeatedly. When his vision cleared and the debuff faded, he saw Micaela was in bad shape. Olaf charged, he didn’t have much room to use ‘Bull Rush’ but he tried anyway. Much to his relief it worked, though the damage wasn’t as good as when he had room to build up steam.

  “You not dead?” Misery as
ked, turning back to Olaf, dropping the nearly dead Micaela.

  Olaf didn’t slow down, he swung with his maul. The weapon swung low, striking the Bearman in the knee, rewarding Olaf with a loud crunching sound as the armor was crushed, adding a ‘Crippled’ debuff to the limb.

  “Micaela, get back,” Olaf said, moving away himself, now that the Bearman was hobbled, he had time to reload while Misery tried to chase after him on one leg. Olaf fired once, then twice and at such a close range the two head shots were more than enough to finish Misery off, his body tumbled over one of the crates and out of sight.

  Olaf looked to his wife first, making sure she was okay. Aside from being beat to hell and having several ‘Crippled’ debuffs on her limbs, she was fine.

  “Where’s Rose?” Olaf asked, realizing he was missing one of their party.

  “The other strongman, Rose is keeping him busy. You should probably go help her, I’m not much good to either of you at this point,” Micaela said, leaning back against the stone wall.

  Olaf went the direction Micaela indicated, eventually hearing the sound of fighting. He followed the sounds to the gear room. Inside, he found Rose tucked into a corner, her shield-wall getting pounded on by an Ogre of all things. If that wasn’t irony.

  Olaf fired first, with ‘Knee Cap’ then ‘Targeted Shot’ but the Ogre ignored him, instead he continued to hammer on Rose’s shields. More frustrating, Olaf’s shots did their normal damage, but the Ogre’s HP bar barely moved.

  “Kill, puny, girlie” the Ogre, said, laughing. Olaf certainly didn’t miss that poor intellect score, though this guy didn’t seem to care.

  Olaf ran at Lumpy, swinging his maul as he went, slamming the maul into the small of the Ogre’s back, dealing -571-HP, but the Ogre’s health bar barely moved again.

  Rose tried to counter when Olaf attacked but the Ogre just continued hammering on her shields, preventing her from doing anything. “Does this oaf ever get tired?”

  “He must be a Bruiser class,” Olaf said, hitting again and again with his two-handed maul. Bruisers were supposedly powerful melee damage dealers. They could dish out a lot of punishment and take it as well. And because the Bruiser only wore leather armor, they seemed to have a limitless supply of stamina. And despite only wearing leather armor, all the damage Olaf was dealing barely affected the guy’s health. It felt like fighting a boss monster for all the damage he was dealing. At most, a level 15 Ogre should have 3,000 HP, but Olaf had already done three times that much damage and Lumpy was only down 7% of his health. That meant he must have some overpowered armor propping him up. “They don’t really worry about things like Stamina . . . or health either apparently,” Olaf explained to Rose, his maul swinging again in the aims of doing some more damage.

  “Yeah, well, I can’t take much more of this,” said Rose.

  Olaf checked his UI and saw that her HP was indeed getting low, her shield-wall was only able to absorb so much damage. “Rose, we need to draw him into the hall and back to Micaela, I have an idea.”

  “Easier said than done, if I move, I’m dead,” Rose said, grunting as a critical hit dropped her HP even lower.

  Olaf growled in frustration. He needed to get this guy off balance somehow. “Okay, I have another idea. Plug your ears if you can.”

  “Not really an option, but do it anyway,” said Rose.

  Olaf canceled his ‘Muffle’ spell, cringing before he even pulled the trigger, knowing just how loud his hand-cannons could be.

  Muffle

  Level: 87

  Experience: 89.14%

  Spell Duration: 10 minutes

  Spell Cast Speed: Instant

  Spell Mana Cost: 224

  Spell Effect (Active): Reduce the sound of target weapon by 43.5%

  And in an enclosed space like this gear room was, it would be worse. But as bad as it would be for Olaf and Rose, it was going to be much worse for Lumpy. Olaf moved behind the Ogre, then put his hand-cannons on either side of Lumpy’s head, right next to his ears. Olaf pulled the trigger on both hand-cannons at the same time. The bullets hit the wall above Rose causing a burst of stone and masonry to fly from the impact, luckily having a secondary effect, creating a smoke screen.

  Olaf winced when he saw the debuff ‘Deafened’ on himself and Rose. But seeing ‘Blind, Deaf and Dumb’ debuffing the Ogre was worth it. Careful to avoid the stumbling and wildly swinging Ogre, Olaf helped Rose up and out of the gear room.

  Rose’s mouth moved but no sound came out.

  “What?” Olaf asked, not able to hear her.

  Rose’s mouth moved again.

  Olaf pointed to his ear, “I can’t hear anything.”

  Rose barred her fangs in frustration.

  Olaf just motioned for her to follow him back to Micaela.

  Olaf saw Micaela resting, still severely debuffed, but alive.

  “Micaela,” Olaf started, undoubtedly yelling because he couldn’t hear himself.

  Micaela’s mouth moved, no doubt telling him to stop yelling.

  “I’m deaf, I can’t hear anything. Look, when that Ogre comes out, I need you to hit him in the chest with Butch’s new skill,” Olaf said, relaying his plan.

  Micaela’s mouth moved more before she finally nodded and gave him a thumbs up, lifting Butch in her one good arm.

  Olaf carefully lifted her up, slinging her bad arm over his shoulder, helping her to stand on two broken legs. He was so going to owe her for this.

  The Ogre finally came out of the mechanical room, still ‘Deafened’ but the ‘Blind and Dumb’ debuffs had faded. He looked mad as hell, stomping down the short hallway toward them.

  Rose charged, meeting the Ogre first, but honestly not doing much damage to him.

  Olaf hobbled forward with his injured wife. He needed to get her one clean shot. Catching Rose’s eyes, he motioned with his hand in a circle, hopeful that she understood he wanted her to turn Lumpy.

  Rose didn’t nod but she did what he hoped.

  “Now, babe!” Olaf shouted, probably far too loudly.

  Micaela got it though, swinging Butch hard, the blade edge of the ax glowing silver. When the ax hit, it cut through the leather armor easily but stopped when it met flesh. However, a spiderweb of tears quickly spread through the leather chest armor until the Ogre was bare-chested.

  Olaf shot him again, hoping he picked the right piece of armor to destroy. This time Lumpy’s HP dipped by 16% from just one shot.

  “I don’t know what his armor was made of, but that was way too powerful to give him that much health or damage absorption,” Olaf complained, not that he could hear himself or anyone else could for that matter.

  Olaf continued to hold Micaela in one arm while swinging his maul in with the other.

  “No! Lumpy no die!” the Ogre shouted as Olaf and Rose’s hearing was suddenly restored.

  “I can hear, yes!” Olaf cheered, attacking with renewed energy.

  “You better kill him,” Rose shouted.

  Olaf was confused for a second until he saw Rose’s HP. And with just one more good hit, Rose was gone, her body fading away a moment later.

  “Drop me,” Micaela said. “You’ll need both hands.”

  Not one to question his wife, Olaf let Micaela slip to the ground, his hand quickly finding his other hand-cannon, firing off a ‘Targeted Shot’, the guaranteed critical hit winning the fight and finally killing the Ogre, its body hitting the ground and fading just like Rose’s had.

  “Well, that sucked,” Micaela said from her spot on the ground. “Mind propping me against a wall?”

  Olaf chuckled. After getting Micaela squared away, Olaf went back to the mechanical room. It was a mess. It was clear the gate was open. It was clearer that it would be staying that way. There was no way to lower it again with all the bent and broken gears.

  “What’s the verdict?” Micaela asked as Olaf returned to her.

  “Gate’s open,” said Olaf.

  “Then you
better get out there and see what you can do,” Micaela said. “Oh, and Ollie, you better kill them all.”

  “Ma’am, yes, ma’am,” said Olaf, grinning at his wife.

  Outside was utter chaos. Toward the main gate, there were still dozens of Dwarves trying to deal with the battering ram, although the pounding against the gate sounded weaker and less frequent so maybe they were making some headway.

  Opposite the gate was more chaotic if that was possible. Captain Grandmite and a dozen cannoneers were trying to fight off two level 17 Assassins, and , though based on the HP he could see, at least one of them wouldn’t last much longer.

  Looking into the courtyard was the real nightmare. Players, almost two dozen of them. It looked like they were being led by a robe wearing player, . Olaf snorted at the name. Olaf didn’t see the logic in picking a name that told everyone around you what you did. Granted, Crushhammer was a bit on the nose but at least he had a somewhat normal first name.

  A look at his user interface showed Bye-bye was alive but he had no idea where he was at this point. For all he knew, Bye-bye was lost somewhere outside the city. Reloading both of his hand-cannons, Olaf took careful aim at Caster Caster. He had just started to pull the trigger when something exploded, throwing off his aim. Instead of hitting and killing Caster Caster, his shot took off the arm of a player .

  As luck would have it, Bye-bye appeared right after, flying through the air, his spear devastating Caster Caster in one shot.

  Olaf was preparing the next shot when he saw something unexpected. The other players were scared. They weren’t the bloodthirsty player killers he had come to expect. When Bye-bye triggered his ‘Justice Bringer’, barely covering the courtyard, Olaf had expected more of a reaction, but the players just looked more confused.

  Then Olaf heard a mad cackling from just below him. Olaf sighed as he heard someone speak in a way that reminded him of the typical villain’s monologue. Olaf barely listened as he reloaded his hand-cannons. Peaking over the edge of the inner wall, he looked out over the edge and took aim at Pwn Star69, the idiot and villain wannabe never even saw him there. Olaf just started to squeeze the trigger when something hit him hard enough to send him rolling along the battlements and reducing his HP even further.