Beyond the Boss

by Drew Seren

  Baladara smacked her forehead. “Man, I hadn’t thought about that. We’re up shit creek, aren’t we?”

  “Maybe not,” Rambull said. “If the designers are working on things for us, they might be able to slip something in that could give us a chance.”

  “Unless it’s like a large helicopter, it might not be enough,” Stanoran muttered. “I don’t know about the other casters, but I was hoping to stock up on water, juice and other beverages to help regain mana. Hostile NPCs might make that impossible.”

  “The water in the creek outside Steel Helm City was good for that,” Horc said, thoughtfully. “Any chance we can rely on our environment for that?”

  Baladara chuckled. “In some ways you’re still such a newb, but it’s not a bad idea. If we can find water. We are in a desert after all.”

  “But we won’t be forever,” Horc said. “How about you other casters, anyone have a decent supply of water?”

  Scarletcrest raised his hand. “I stocked up before we went to the arena. Still got most of it. I can share.”

  Horc beamed at the Gnome. “That’s the spirit. We can support each other until we find supplies.”

  Bigdaddybear frowned and opened his eyes. “Okay, good news and bad news. They found the dragon and a concentration of hostages. But they’ve split the hostages up so we’re not going to know who is where.”

  Several people grumbled at the news.

  “The dragon is also on a landmass called Beyond North,” he continued. “It’s going to be tough to get there. Rick and the others are working on that right now. He says there’s an oasis not far from here where we can refill our water containers. He’s also got some transport arranged for us here. He’d drop the transport right in front of us, but he can’t get a firm lock on our locale until we reach the oasis, since it’s a firm location on the map.”

  “Transport will be good,” Horc said. If it was something where they weren’t going to have to hike across the continent, it would be a good thing. With the game being weird on them, Horc wondered what kind of transport Rick was going to be able to arrange.

  7

  Following Rick’s directions on how to find the oasis, it was less than an hour’s walk from where they had collapsed. Massive palm trees jutted out of the white sands and a large pond, not exactly large enough to be a lake, occupied the middle of the grove. Tied to several of the palm trees were ten massive lizards, or at least that how Horc saw them until he saw the text over their scaly heads. They were a variety of blue, green, purple and red and the size of cows if he didn’t include the tail which was as long as the bodies were and in constant motion. The green text over their heads read Stonzard, level forty-nine mount.

  “Yeah, these look like fun,” Baladara muttered as she walked up to one. “Have I ever told anyone that I’m really not into horses?”

  Horc laughed and wasn’t going to add that he wasn’t either. “Then it’s a good thing these aren’t horses.” Each of the huge lizards had saddles already on them, and the saddlebags bulged with what Horc hoped were supplies.

  “Yes!” Stanoran shouted as he opened the saddlebags one of the purple lizards. “Water and food. Bigdaddybear, make sure to tell your husband thanks for us.”

  Bigdaddybear grinned as he checked the bags on one of the green ones. “Will do. I figured he could come up with something helpful.”

  Horc walked over to the lone red lizard. It had bright red streaks running from its head back to its haunches. Overall, its hide was a fairly deep brick red and its eyes were a bright yellow. It was the only one of the group that wasn’t constantly lashing its tail, and Horc hoped that meant it had a calmer demeanor than the others. He checked his bags, and like the others found food, water, and a few odd sparkling crystals. Pulling out one of the crystals, he held it up to the bright sun.

  Crystal of Magical Enhancement.

  “Anybody know what these crystals are?” He turned to the rest of the group and held up the clear crystal.

  Scarletcrest, who was already on his purple lizard stood in the saddle and raised one of his own. “They’re special items to increase spell power. I’ve been looking for some since someone posted about them in the game wiki. They’re fairly rare, and only last a few minutes. I guess that’s why we’ve got so many of them.”

  “Another way Rick’s trying to help,” Bigdaddybear said, swinging into his own saddle. Being a huge Ursan, sitting on the lizard didn’t look as odd as it might have if Rick had sent horses to them.

  “How do we use them?” Horc slipped his back into the saddlebag and put his foot in the stirrup to mount his lizard.

  “You crush them in your hand to release the magic,” Scarletcrest said.

  “Sounds fairly easy,” Baladara replied. She shook her lizard’s reins and then looked confused when it didn’t start forward. “Okay folks, there’s no gear shift here, how do I put it in drive?”

  Tufkakes laughed. “Heels to the side.” He pulled his green lizard next to Baladara. “It would help if you put your heels down and toes up.”

  Baladara’s lizard snapped at Tufkakes’. Tufkakes’ snapped back, then lashed out with its tail.

  “Stop that you stupid things,” Baladara complained as she clung to the saddle and dropped the reins. “This isn’t going to be a lot of fun, is it?”

  Theodore sighed as he started his mount forward. “This whole game stopped being fun when the AI decided it could try to kill us.”

  “There is that,” Horc agreed, although he didn’t want to admit that he was having a lot more fun in Halfworld than he’d had in any fantasy game before, and it was enough that if it hadn’t been for the AI, he might give up on Galactic Explorers, the scifi mmorpg he normally played. Being in the middle of a rescue mission wasn’t the time to announce how much fun he was having. It was even great running with the rest of the players in the guild. In the other games he played, he normally ran solo, and when he needed extra manpower, he’d hire henchmen, or crew for his ship, but always NPCs. Not that hiring NPCs in Halfworld would be safe while the AI was trying to kill them. But, NPCs wouldn’t be having the problems Baladara was getting her mount to go. They wouldn’t have the snarky conversations players did, either. Overall, it was refreshing, in a life and death sort of way.

  With a bit more prompting from the others, Baladara managed to get her mount going and they continued across the desert, heading north out of the oasis.

  After a while, the gentle rocking motion of the lizard, and the blandness of the undulating white landscape made Horc drowsy. He crossed his arms, keeping a light hold on the reins and not realizing how tired he was, even as his head dropped toward his chest.

  “Horc! Everyone, we’ve got a problem.” Bigdaddybear’s voice tore through Horc’s sleep.

  Jerking erect, Horc yanked on his lizard’s reins and nearly lost his balance. For a second the white sand beneath the lizard flashed in his vision, then he grabbed hold of the saddle horn and righted himself. He shook his head and rubbed his eyes. “What’s wrong?”

  Bigdaddybear was riding right next to Horc. “Look.” He pointed to the north.

  The blue sky had vanished and a huge white wave looked like it was about to crash over them.

  Horc pulled on the reins, bringing his mount to a stop. “Is that a sand storm?”

  “Sure looks like it.” Bigdaddybear replied. “And it looks like it’s heading right at us.”

  “We could circle the lizards before it gets here,” Titanya suggested. “If we can get them to lie down and form a scaly wall, it might help block the worst of it.”

  “Or we could try some magic and keep riding,” Bigdaddybear suggested. “I have a couple of spells that might help us.”

  “Not a bad idea,” Baladara agreed. “A big shield spell cast over the group might block enough of the sand and wind to let us keep going.”

  “But how would we know where we’re going?” Horc asked, not liking the idea of riding blind across the desert. They’d
been lucky since leaving Red Wind Terrace and hadn’t run into any desert-dwelling monsters, but he figured that could change at any moment, and if Baladara, one of their big hitters, was caught up in casting their protection they might be in trouble, especially if they just stumbled on a nest of scorpions, or snakes.

  “I can help with that,” Scarletcrest announced. “I can cast a vision spell and focus it a little beyond her shield spell. It would be like trying to drive using a camera for guidance, awkward, but possible.”

  “I like the idea,” Tufkakes said. “Keeps us moving.”

  Although he was still worried about not being prepared for something in the middle of the storm, Horc nodded. “Okay. Everyone stay sharp. Baladara, use one of those crystals to give you a bit of extra oomph. Scarletcrest get your spell ready for when the storm hits us. Let’s tighten things up as much as these lizards will let us.” Horc stayed at the front of the group, as Baladara and Scarletcrest took up positions on either side of him.

  When the first grains of sand began hitting them, Baladara started her spell. Her hands glowed yellow for a moment, then the wind and sand stopped. She let out a contented sigh and seemed to relax in her saddle. “Nice to see this works. I’m going to have to recast every three minutes, which might get to be a pain after a while.”

  “Which is why you’ve got friends,” Tufkakes said sounding more cheerful than Horc felt at that moment.

  The wall of white enveloped Baladara’s protective sphere. IRL Horc had never seen a white sandstorm. They were normally black or dirty brown. The storm in the Scalteon Desert looked more like a snowstorm as the pale grains of sand pelted the magical shield blocking out the damaging wind and sand. It was like being in the middle of a snow globe, but the flakes and spinning were on the outside, not the inside.

  “Wow, even with magical sight, it’s hard to see out there.” Scarletcrest shook his head as if to clear his vision. “Everything’s moving so fast and furiously.”

  “Do you want me to try to generate some wind blowing the opposite direction and see if that clears things in front of us?” Bigdaddybear offered.

  Horc shook his head. “No. I don’t want all our casters caught up in this. If something happens I want at least one of you to be fresh and ready to fight.”

  “Renewing spell,” Baladara announced. “I don’t know if there’ll be a moment of storm or not.” Her hands glowed as she began casting the spell.

  It didn’t feel like it had been three minutes since she did the first spell, but Horc had always been horrible at the game so many corporate trainers liked to play to have phone techs judge a minute of silence to put them in the shoes of customers who were on hold.

  A gust of wind laden with dust lashed at them, then cut off as Baladara finished her spell.

  “Good job,” Horc said.

  “Ah guys, I think we’ve got a problem,” Scarletcrest muttered.

  Horc’s heart sank. They’d just entered the storm, it wasn’t a good time for trouble to find them. If something happened to Baladara they’d be at the storm’s mercy. “What’s wrong?”

  Scarletcrest pointed up and to the front of them. “Dragons.”

  “Dragons? As in plural?” Horc inwardly cursed the sandstorm. He couldn’t see anything past the invisible magical shield protecting them from the winds and sand.

  “Shit.” Baladara screamed as claws and a scaly body hit the shield above them. She rocked in her saddle and her lizard skittered to the side.

  “Oh no you don’t.” Bigdaddybear reached out and grabbed the lizard’s reins. “I need you to calm down.” His hands glowed a light blue and after a second, the glow traveled across to the lizard.

  For the first time since they’d left the oasis, the big beast looked sleepy as its green eyelids drooped slightly.

  Another heavily scaled body slammed into the shield and Baladara grabbed her head. “Guys, they aren’t getting through, but I don’t know how much of this I can take.”

  “And you’ll have to renew the shield in about two minutes,” Rambull said. “I’ve got an idea, but we need to stop for a bit.”

  “There’s four dragons that I can see,” Scarletcrest said.

  “I can’t keep that many out,” Baladara moaned.

  “Maybe you don’t have to.” Rambull glanced at Theodore and Bigdaddybear. “Let’s knock this storm back on its ass, then take out these dragons. Wind spells as the shield drops.”

  Horc liked where his thinking was going. He pulled out his bow and nocked an arrow. “Tanks and Rogues, get ready, we’re about to have dragons.”

  8

  Everything seemed to happen at once. The winds for the spells erupted out of Baladara’s shield. Dragons dropped out of the skies around the party. Battle cries rang out, and Horc loosed a series of Fire Arrows into the dragons as Baladara screamed at the top of her lungs.

  Horc’s red lizard charged toward the parting of the storm, as Horc tried to get another round of arrows off. The Dragons were getting their footing and chasing some of the other lizards and party members. Those members of the party, like Titanya and Stanoran, who’d gotten off their mounts were faring better than the ones who’d opted to stay astride as the lizards scattered in all directions.

  Pulling on his mount’s reins, Horc tried to turn the beast around. His party was in trouble and needed him. The lizard jerked back, hissing. As the party shouted and cursed behind him, Horc fought to get control of the lizard. It reared up hissing and pawing the air. Horc forced its head around, wishing Bigdaddybear was there to calm it like he had Baladara’s steed.

  Lightning danced in the sandstorm as the opening created by the winds began to close.

  Somehow, Horc managed to get his lizard pointed back toward the party. From what he could see, several people were missing, and there were only three Dragons, not four. Titanya and Stanoran were pounding on one, a small Dragon, at least by Horc’s recollection, that had blue scales and a black frilled ruff. They were doing pretty good at holding it off Baladara who rolled on the ground holding her head, continuing to scream.

  Horc got off an impact Fire arrow, then pulled on his lizard’s reins to bring the freaking thing to a shaky stop. His best bet was to stay back and fire arrows, letting his tanks do their job of close combat.

  Rambull glowed with a strange red magic as he grabbed hold of a slightly larger Dragon. He gripped it by the horns and went to flip it over like he was a cowboy bulldogging a calf.

  Switching targets for a few quick shots, Horc sent arrows into Rambull’s Dragon. Its health flashed with each strike. Then Bigdaddybear jumped on the beast and whacked it hard on the head. The Dragon faltered and fell over with the combined efforts of Bigdaddybear and Rambull.

  Horc got more arrows in the one Titanya and Stanoran were fighting, helping drop it to under half. He wondered where Tufkakes, Jamica, and Scarletcrest were.

  The fourth Dragon reappeared, charging out of the sandstorm with Tufkakes and Jamica on it, hitting hard and fast with daggers. Horc got a Poisoned razor arrow into it before it disappeared into the storm on the other side of the fight. The wind and sand from the failing splitting of the storm began to hit Horc in the back.

  Somewhere in the storm a Dragon screamed, at least he thought it was a Dragon and not one of the lizard mounts. Horc hit the Dragon Theodore was astride. The Ursan was holding onto its wings like he was trying to use them to steer the monster. The Dragon kept bending its neck around, trying to snap at Theodore. Horc hit it in the head twice with impact arrows. The Dragon stumbled and turned toward Horc.

  The Dragon spun, not seeming to care about the Ursan Shaman holding onto its wings. It appeared hell bent on hitting Horc. Getting a couple more arrows into it only dropped the thing to three quarters. More than ever, Horc wished they were still able to do critical hits, he had no idea how long they were going to have to pound on each Dragon to bring them down, let alone all four of them. With his next arrow, the winds were whipping around him and blew it to the
side just as his lizard reared again and took off into the storm.

  “Damn it.” Horc jumped from the lizard. He didn’t have time to fight his mount, the storm and the Dragon. The landing hurt his knees, and jarred his bow out of his hand.

  The sandstorm engulfed him just as he pulled his halberd and braced it spear-like for the Dragon’s charge, hoping the beast wouldn’t come in at an angle and miss the spear tip, getting Theodore hit instead.

  His luck improved and the Dragon hit the tip of the halberd. The axe blade stopped the beast from sliding too far on the weapon, but it was enough to drop the thing down to half.

  “Wahoo!” Theodore shouted, then ran along the dragon’s back to drive a short sword into the thing’s head. The blow knocked an eighth of the thing’s health back.

  The Dragon jerked back, pulling itself free of Horc’s halberd, and nearly yanking the weapon out of his grip. It shook its head furiously and opened its jaws. Lightning danced out of its maw. Horc threw himself on the ground, rolling out of the way as bolts of electricity lashed the sands. The elemental fury struck Theodore and every hair on his body stood out as he flew off the Dragon’s neck.

  The sandstorm made it hard to tell exactly, but it looked like his sword went flying out of his hand as Theodore was flung from the Dragon.

  Horc slashed with the halberd’s axe blade catching the Dragon in the throat. Shocking power raced across his weapon, jumping from the metal blade across the decorative iron bands on the handle and hit Horc for lots of damage. The impact of the electricity threw him backward into the sandstorm, knocking out nearly half of his health in the one harsh exchange.

  The sandstorm closed around him. The winds muffled the sounds of the other fights going on near him. The sands hit his exposed skin, stinging at first and quickly turning to burning. Horc reached into his boot and pulled out a dagger. It wouldn’t do much against a dragon, but unless he happened to stumble across either his bow or his halberd, it was all he had, other than arrows that he could stab something with as well.