by M E Robinson
Jun laughed. “Don’t fuck up.”
“I won’t. No worries,” Ryan promised, grabbing the dagger from his thigh and wielding it in his left hand.
As Gio stepped into the wider part of the tunnel, Ryan launched himself into action. Leaping on a rock jutting out of the side of the tunnel, he threw himself up and over the bearded man who gaped as he watched the swordsman fly over his head.
“Stop him!” the bearded man roared, turning to strike at Ryan as he landed and rolled past an approaching fighter.
“Watch where you’re looking,” a cold voice told him. With a hollow sound, the metal boss of Gio’s shield slammed into the side of the bearded man, stunning him briefly as Gio’s sword flashed, shaving off a part of the man’s healthbar.
Completing his roll, Ryan reversed his grip on the dagger, burying it into the hamstring of a warrior who was too slow to react. Yanking the dagger out, he darted towards the surprised archers, both of whom had their bows lowered as they looked for a good shot past the bearded man.
Taken by surprise at Ryan’s sudden appearance, the archers were too slow to react as he darted towards them. Raising their bows, the archers attempted to get off a desperate shot as Ryan approached. Seeing this, Ryan fell into a slide, the arrows passing harmlessly overhead and slamming into the shield of one of their allies who’d attempted to follow Ryan as he passed. Stumbling backwards, the swordsman glared at the archers; unfortunately, they were far too busy to notice as Ryan came out of his slide, his sword and dagger flashing repeatedly as he slashed at the two ranged fighters, taking huge chunks out of their healthbars.
Jumping apart, the archers attempted to put distance between themselves and the agile swordsman, while the fighter who’d glared at them charged over to help, his companion moving to reinforce the bearded man engaging Gio and Jun in the tunnel.
Following the archer with less health, Ryan didn’t let up, his sword and dagger creating a blur of iron as he cut at the fleeing ranger. With a desperate cry, the archer fell, his arrows tumbling out of his quiver and scattering across the rocky cave floor. With a roar, the fighter finally reached Ryan, raising his shield to bash at the pesky swordsman. Dodging aside, Ryan buried his dagger in the man’s side, eliciting another roar, this one more primal than the previous one.
Grinning, Ryan bounced lightly on his feet, circling the fighter and awaiting an opportunity to attack. Checking the position of the archer, he strafed left, allowing an arrow to clatter harmlessly off a nearby stalagmite, chunks of limestone falling to the floor as the arrow left a small crater in the rock.
Seizing the opportunity, the fighter swung his sword at the swordsman, using a sweeping motion to prevent another sideways dodge. Jumping backwards, Ryan grinned at the swordsman, allowing the tip of the sword to pass within a foot of his chest. As the sword passed, he charged back in, raising his sword high to bait the fighter into raising his shield. As the fighter reacted to his swing, he brought his dagger up to strike at the man’s now exposed ribs.
Jumping back once more to avoid the fighter’s follow-up shield bash, Ryan winced, looking down at the arrow that had just embedded itself in his side. Ducking under the fighter’s sword, he thrust his sword at the man’s face, forcing him to raise his shield to defend himself.
Remembering a piece of advice Jun had given him the day before, Ryan kicked at the fighter’s leg, forcing him down to one knee. Seizing the advantage, Ryan pressed the assault, his twin blades falling upon the man’s upturned shield, slowly forcing it away from his body. Hacking down at the exposed tunic, Ryan was rewarded with a chunk of the man’s hitpoints. Raising his dagger, he prepared to take off another portion when another arrow sped towards him. Attempting to dodge, Ryan’s foot landed on a cluster of arrows scattered along the ground which rolled out from under his boot.
Losing his balance, Ryan fell heavily to the ground, the wind whooshing out of him. Not missing this chance, the fighter regained his feet and dashed towards him, his sword held in a reverse grip ready to impale the annoying swordsman to the cave floor. Seeing the man charging towards him, Ryan attempted to jump to his feet, but a glint in the dim light of the cave caused him to abandon the idea, rolling desperately to the side as another arrow slammed into the spot he’d occupied only a moment before. Unable to regain his feet, Ryan was forced to bring his blades up in a defensive posture, prepared to receive the fighter’s sword. Checking his healthbar, he grimaced; there was a very good chance that this could kill him. Reckless play was fun, but he hadn’t thought that players at this level would be responsible for his first death.
Jumping into the air, the fighter held his sword in a reverse grip, intent on driving the sword straight through the downed swordsman. So intent was he on his task that he failed to notice the arrow speeding through the air. With a soft piercing sound, the arrow buried itself in his skull, taking off the remainder of his hitpoints. Still midleap, the fighter’s form faltered, the blade and shield falling as his body fell across Ryan, whose blades were still held high, ready to receive an attack that would never come.
The remaining archer’s eyes widened as he watched his companion fall. Glancing towards the tunnel, he watched as Gio charged towards him, Jun leaping out from behind the charging shieldbearer to snipe at the archer. Grabbing for an arrow, the archer attempted to nock it to his bow. Unfortunately, Jun was far faster, his arrow leaping through the air like a viper to bite at the man’s throat. With a gurgling sound, the archer fell to his knees, the last of his healthbar disappearing as he collapsed to the cave floor.
With that the fight was over. Shoving the fighter’s corpse off of him, Ryan hauled himself to his feet. “Took you long enough,” he said sarcastically.
Jun shrugged at this. “We were busy. If Gio hadn’t missed his attacks so much, we’d have been here faster.”
“Hey! I had my hands full keeping them from charging you!” Gio protested.
Jun laughed. “Yeah you did pretty well. Good job, Gio,” he said, giving Gio an exaggerated thumbs up.
Gio twisted his hands awkwardly. “I can’t tell if you’re being serious.”
“Nah you did good. Ryan would’ve been fucked if you hadn’t shield bashed that guy.”
“True, I didn’t expect him to be able to react to my jump. He was way easier to kill yesterday,” Ryan spoke up. “But yeah. You did good, Gio.”
“Thanks. I think.”
Ryan laughed. “Has Jun really traumatized you so badly you can’t take a compliment?”
It was Gio’s turn to laugh. Jun said nothing, merely looking away innocently as Ryan grinned at him. Looking up at the two, Gio smiled awkwardly. “Nah. It’s just that I didn’t feel like I did much. I just did what you asked.”
Jun snorted. “That’s a real skill right there. If Eric did what I asked more often, we wouldn’t have so many problems in matches. You too, Ryan, now that I think about it. Don’t think I’ve forgotten that you left us all to die so you could farm bot last week.”
Ignoring Jun’s antagonizing, Ryan looked at Gio. “He’s right. All we needed was for you to be the tank. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy. You did good, man.”
“Thanks,” Gio replied, looking down to hide his growing smile.
Looking at the carnage around them, Ryan sighed, “Maybe Mark has a point. You guys wanna lay low down here for a while? Just grind out some levels without killing anyone?”
Jun laughed. “Sure. But if they come back, we’re killing them again. I can’t afford Amozon Prime. I ain’t refusing free item delivery.”
This elicited laughs from Ryan and Gio. With large smirks, the trio set to looting the corpses.
Chapter 7
Venturing further north, the party slaughtered the pairs of patrolling goblins they discovered as they searched for a squad of five. Now that Eric had revealed his skills, Turk seemed much more at ease around him, joining in on the conversation as Aria continued to pelt him with questions.
“I’ve been
meaning to ask. Why do you carry that bow if you mainly use your sword and magic?” Aria asked curiously, pointing to the Yew Longbow on Eric’s back.
“Actually, I do rely on it quite a bit. But I’ve been trying to level up my magic. Normally, I would have opened up on those two goblins with an arrow to the dome. But I figured you guys wanted to see how I’d do in a real fight, not an ambush,” Eric explained.
“Arrow to the dome?” Aria asked, tilting her head in confusion.
“The head. Gamer slang,” Eric explained.
“Ah.”
“Speaking of magic, where’s your wand?” Turk interjected. “I haven’t seen you using one. Have you already learned how to do wandless casting?”
“Yeah, I learned how to do it in the tutorial. I may have accidentally blown up my wand during the tutorial, and I was too embarrassed to ask for another one. So I just kind of taught myself how to do wandless casting,” Eric responded. Aria looked at him with wide eyes.
“What?” Eric asked, shuffling uncomfortably as she continued to gaze at him with undisguised longing.
“Teach me.”
“What?”
“Please teach me. I reaaaaally want to learn wandless casting!” Aria pleaded, bringing her hands together and lowering her head.
“Alright alright, no need to beg - it’s embarrassing,” said Eric awkwardly. Turk rolled his eyes at his friend’s antics, continuing to forge on through the forest. Somewhere along the way, the trees had become taller and thicker, the dense branches blocking out much of the late afternoon sunlight.
As Eric attempted to teach Aria how to cast magic wandlessly, the trio found themselves at a large gap in the trees. Here, a huge number of trees had fallen at some point, with old trunks scattered across the swathe of deforested land. At the very centre, a huge gully could be seen, like a scar in the land that carried on for as far as the eye could see. Continuing for at least a kilometre in either direction, the deforested area spanned roughly three hundred meters between the two tree lines with very little in the way of cover to hide the party as they crossed.
“This is where we encountered the first squad earlier,” said Turk, scanning the fallen trees and boulders for signs of goblins.
“Yeah, they seem to be watching this area. There were two squads when we were here earlier. One about a kilometre to the west, and another a few hundred meters east,” Aria added.
“Can’t we just go around? How far does this go on for?” Eric asked, gesturing towards the treeless scenery.
Turk shook his head. “We tried that. First we headed east, but after two kilometres we gave up, because there was no end in sight. To the west, there’s a large cliff - you can’t see it right now due to the trees. But if we walked west for about ten minutes, you’d see why we can’t go that way.”
“Tch, so there’s no way across but through here?”
“Pretty much, but we have no idea how many goblins could be around. Like I said, there were two squads here earlier. We’re not sure if they live nearby, or if they’re guarding it. But even with three of us, I don’t think we can handle ten goblins at the same time,” murmured Aria, continuing to scan the barren swathe.
“There,” said Turk, pointing to a large tree trunk that had fallen at an angle, landing on top of another fallen trunk to create an enormous wooden X roughly sixty meters from the tree line. Peering closely, Eric could just make out a goblin crouched under the trunk, mirroring the trio’s actions as it scanned the forest for intruders. As his eyes adjusted, he could make out three more, presumably there was a fifth hidden somewhere nearby if Turk and Aria’s information was to be trusted.
“Think we can sneak over without them noticing?” whispered Aria.
Turk shook his head. “Their position affords them too great a vantage point over the area. We’ll need to kill them then and do it before another group notices.”
Eric nodded. “Any idea on how to do that? I’m all for a straightforward charge, but that doesn’t seem conducive to staying low profile.”
“We sneak as close as we can, then you and Aria hit them with ranged attacks as I charge. Ideally, Kyp, you charge with me, and together we engage the goblins that weren’t injured or killed while Aria supports us from the back. Sound good?”
Eric nodded while Aria murmured her assent. Crouching low, the trio retreated into the brush. Once they were far enough away to avoid alerting the goblins, Turk led them to a spot fifty meters west of their original position. Emerging once more into the barren strip of land, the party stayed low, creeping along the length of an enormous fallen oak, its once mighty branches long since eroded by the combined powers of wind and time. Stealthily, the group advanced, threading around fallen branches, stepping over fallen stones, and doing their best to avoid stepping on any dry twigs, lest they cause a noise and alert the goblin sentries to their approach.
Rounding the upturned roots of the oak, Turk motioned for them to stop. “Prepare to attack,” he mouthed.
“How far away are they?” Eric mouthed back. Turk held up two fingers.
“Twenty meters,” whispered Aria. Eric nodded, drawing his bow and nocking an arrow, doing his best to minimize the noise he made. Aria mimicked his action, drawing a pair of unfamiliar runes and readying her spell. Taking a second to calm himself, Eric glanced at Aria who gave him a quick nod. Seeing this non-verbal exchange, Turk pulled back slightly, giving the two room to take aim at the goblins.
Peeking out from behind the roots Eric could see the goblin squad. Two goblins were alert, staring at the treeline, slowly scanning the eastern and western approaches to the barren patch of land. Two other goblins could be seen staring in the other direction, monitoring the northern tree line. The final goblin was hidden behind a screen of branches. While it had been almost impossible to see it from their previous position in the forest, from the side, it was exposed and lying in plain view. As Eric watched, the fifth goblin alternated looking between the east and the west, monitoring the barren land for anyone attempting to approach the lookout post.
Drawing his bow, Eric sighted at the goblin hidden in the crook of the branches. As Aria took aim at the two looking south, he activated Charged Shot, the arrow leaping from his bow with a loud twang. Simultaneously, Aria cast her spell, a watery dart emerging from the tip of her staff and shooting towards the goblins. Alerted by the sound, the goblins flinched, but there was no time for them to react as the arrow and spell covered the twenty meters between the two groups almost instantaneously: Eric’s arrow burying into the skull of the lookout goblin, while Aria’s water dart slammed into the chest of one of the two south-facing goblins, knocking it backwards but not killing it.
With a vicious cry, Turk emerged from behind the two, sprinting forwards with his shield raised. This turned out to be the correct move as the companion to Aria’s target lifted a crude bow, firing an arrow at the oncoming fighter. Receiving the arrow on his shield, Turk didn’t slow at all, instead speeding up as he covered the remaining ten meters between him and the fallen tree that the goblins had occupied. Reaching the goblins, Turk’s shield slammed into the archer, causing it to shoot backwards like a cannonball. Unfortunately for the goblin, its momentum was arrested by the tree trunk, its body slamming into the unforgiving wood with a satisfying thunk.
Raising his sword, Turk hacked at the goblin that Aria had downed. In response, the goblin raised its saber and parried the blow, calling out to its companions in an angry chittering voice. This call seemed to be the signal for the remaining two lookouts to burst into action, raising their bows and firing at Turk. Raising his shield, he managed to block one arrow, but the other found its mark, lodging deep in Turk’s side and causing him to wince.
By now, Eric had arrived, activating Dashing Cut to finish off the goblin Aria had wounded previously. At this point, the goblin Turk had charged had regained its feet and regrouped with its remaining companions who drew their sabers, ferocious war cries that belied their size emerging from the
mouths of the three goblins as they charged. Unfortunately for the goblins, another water dart exploded into the middle of their formation, sending the foremost goblin flying backwards, disrupting the goblin’s charge. Not missing the opportunity, Turk charged one of the off-balance goblins, bashing into it with his shield and sending it flying to the ground.
Conjuring up an Arcane Strike, Eric fired it at the final goblin, forcing it to raise its blade to parry the violet bolt. This was exactly the opening he was hoping for. Kicking upwards, his foot smashed into the goblins saber hand, creating an opening that Eric’s blade did not miss, slashing across the goblin’s chest and leaving a deep wound. With a hissing sound, the goblin pressed forward, ignoring the blood on its chest as it stretched its claws out and grabbed at Eric’s armour.
Surprised, Eric stumbled backwards, the goblin drawing its saber back for a thrust. Gritting his teeth, Eric raised his arm, taking the thrust directly in the forearm but sparing his chest from the strike as he and the goblin fell to the ground together, entwined in a deadly embrace. Retracting the blade from Eric’s arm, the goblin attempted to hack at his face and shoulders, its other arm furiously holding off Eric’s swordhand. This little freak is surprisingly strong for his size, Eric thought as he desperately grappled with the goblin. As the goblin freed its saber, raising the blade high for an overhand slash, its eyes suddenly rolled backwards, its healthbar depleting as Turk’s sword emerged from the front of its chest.
Throwing the dead goblin off, Eric sat up. The battle had concluded, Aria’s water dart having finished off the last goblin while Turk and Eric had fought their opponents in melee combat. Taking Turk’s hand, Eric hauled himself to his feet, brushing off the dirt and leaves from his little tumble with the goblin.
“That was a pretty fun fight,” said Turk with a grin, wiping the blood off his sword and sheathing it.
“Yup. It’s definitely way easier with Kyp here!” Aria piped up, arriving at the fallen tree. Eric grinned. The fight had definitely been exciting. Way easier than his earlier battle with the wolfriders at the stony hill.