Deserts Of Naroosh

by Bradford Bates

  “That’s just good loving,” Tim replied. “You don’t have to like the same stuff, but it’s nice to recognize how much the other person enjoys their thing. Sometimes you might find happiness enjoying something new through their eyes.”

  ShadowLily didn’t talk about her mom much. Tim had the feeling she died, and it was one of those things that made her sad. Losing a parent at a young age could be devastating. At least when they were older, you knew it was coming. Not that it made it feel any better. He knew there was a day when his parents wouldn’t be around anymore, and the thought terrified him. His parents were his rock, his anchor in the world. Without them, he didn’t know who he was.

  At least she still had Joe, and he was someone they were all thankful for.

  Lorelei looked from ShadowLily to Tim. “Kind of like how she likes tea, and you like coffee.”

  Tim’s head whipped around. “Don’t expect me to start cheering for tea anytime soon.” He paused for a moment, not wanting to admit it but also wanting to be honest. “Although, I could drink some more of that honeyed tea.”

  He clapped a hand over his mouth, realizing what he’d said out loud. “But only at night, and only on special occasions.”

  “Someone call Eternia, we just witnessed a miracle.” Cassie roared with laughter.

  JaKobi grinned. “Hell must have frozen over because I never thought I’d hear you say any cup of tea was good enough for seconds.”

  Had he said that?

  “Let me clarify.” Tim lifted one finger in the air and puffed himself up with the air of a man about to issue a proclamation of the finest order. “There is one kind of tea I find acceptable to drink for pleasure. It will in no way, shape, or form, ever be better than coffee.”

  Lorelei pointed off in the distance. “Let the caffeine snob have his way. We're almost there.”

  Her eyes must have been much better than his because right now all Tim saw in the distance was a little squiggle on the horizon. It could have been a house, but it also could have been a mirage. Tim had noticed on their rides that sometimes he thought he saw trees or water in the distance only for them to reach that point to find nothing there.

  Lorelei wouldn’t make something up, so it was time to stop dicking around and get serious.

  Tim wasn’t sure of their best course of action yet so the longer it took them to approach, the better. He reined his horse to a stop. “Let’s leave the horses here and approach on foot.”

  “Maybe I can assassinate one of them.” ShadowLily leapt off her horse and pulled her hood over her head.

  JaKobi made a less graceful dismount. “Wrong game.”

  “Nothing is ever that easy.” ShadowLily pulled her hood back down. “But it was a nice thought.”

  Cassie made her way to the front of the group. “Just get behind me, and get ready to kill things.”

  The group got into their standard formation and checked their buffs. Tim kept his eyes moving from side to side looking for threats as they walked toward their destination. This place was the opposite of the Zerker’s in about every way possible. Where the Zerker decided that heads on spikes were the height of exterior home designs, the Daughters seemed to prefer flowers.

  It was crazy to think that anyone would waste water on flowers out here. Water in the desert was as priceless as gold, and yet they had more flowers than many of the homes he’d seen by the coast. Not that it was his place to judge how rich folks spent their money. They earned it and could spend it on what they wanted, even if he thought it was stupid. The Daughters wanted flowers and could afford them, so they had them in a place where no one else did.

  Seeing what he’d thought was a home was instead a small fort was a relief. There was something about going up to a cottage and slaying the inhabitants that felt wrong even if they were monsters. Attacking a military installation covered in flowers was a little easier to swallow.

  Dracon’s fort had been the kind of building one would expect to find a ruthless general lurking in, even if he ended up being a disgraced one. The place was as unforgiving as the man himself. Zerker’s little palace was easily the most disgusting thing Tim ever had the misfortune to smell. Nothing said turn around and never come back like human body parts scattered across the yard like garbage.

  So the fort in front of them was an upgrade. The doors were a rich, warm wood. The bricks on the walls had been covered with plaster and painted white. Flowers and ivy covered just about everything in sight. Tim had to pinch himself to make sure he wasn’t walking into a fantasy or being drugged.

  Wait, was something drugging them?

  Tim cast Cleanse on himself, and nothing looked different. For a moment he was afraid that when he cast Cleanse, the pretty scenery would have faded and he would be standing in Hell itself. Relieved that Hell would have to wait for another day, Tim continued looking over the fort. It was the nicest thing they’d seen since coming to the desert.

  Too bad it belonged to some cold-blooded killers.

  It would have been nice to come to a spot like this and swap stories about recipes and gardening, but they were here to end two of Jabari’s generals. Taking the Daughters off the playing field was the last thing they needed to accomplish before Khalid revealed Phase Two of the resistance’s plan. Everything they were doing now was to free a nation from the clutches of tyranny.

  Tim was all about freedom.

  People needed to be free to make their choices, even when they were bad ones. Such as when he went to a party and drank so much he spent the next day puking his guts out, or taking that certain someone home when sleeping with the ex was a recipe for disaster. Learning how to deal with one’s mistakes so they didn’t repeat them was part of the process of being human. At the end of the day, his philosophy on life was simple. If you weren’t hurting others, then it was none of his business what people did.

  The Daughters liked hurting people, so they had to go.

  “This place is beautiful,” Lorelei commented as a butterfly flew down and landed on the tip of her arrow.

  ShadowLily looked around. “I could retire in a place like this.”

  “If we could all be so lucky.” Tim couldn’t help but think this was damn near paradise.

  A woman appeared at the fort’s entrance. Her crimson red leather outfit stood out as a stark contrast to the white walls of their surroundings. The woman almost seemed like a mirage, but Tim knew it was the start of the encounter.

  The woman standing in front of them appeared to shimmer with the heat, then two of them stood side by side. These were the Daughters, Sabrina and Savine in the flesh.

  Each of the swordmaker's daughters held a single blade in their right hand. Their left arms were covered in dark heavy plates from the shoulder down to the elbow, and tight black leather bindings wrapped their forearms. The two shared a look and took a few steps forward.

  “What do we have here, Savine?” Sabrina looked at her sister with mock surprise.

  Savine stopped and made a show of counting them. “Five on two is hardly fair, but we get so few challengers these days. Even Jabari hardly needs us.”

  “Don’t pout, dearest one. The world is full of people to kill.” Sabrina grinned at her sister. “We need only to leave the desert to find new opportunities for glory.”

  Sweet laughter tumbled from Savine’s lips. “Today, Vitaria provides. We didn’t even have to leave the house.”

  The two women stopped about fifty feet away from them. “Tell me, adventurers, who has sent you here to die?” Sabrina cooed.

  “Tell us the name so we can go after them next. Only a coward doesn’t fight their own battles.” Savine stared at them coolly as if daring them to disagree.

  Tim had about enough of these two already.

  They spoke with flowery tones and sounded reasonable enough, but they were snakes in the grass. These two women might as well have been the Professors Umbridge of the desert. Evil was easy to face when it was something like the Zerker, but when it
was all wrapped up in flowers and sweetness, it wasn’t always as easy to tell which side was the right one.

  “We come on behalf of the Goddess Eternia, via her humble servant Khalid,” Tim called.

  He would never hide who he was fighting for. Every opportunity he was blessed with since entering the game had come at Eternia’s hand or the people who worked for her. The Goddess set the wheels in motion. He just worked his ass off to make the dream come true. A person never knew in life when they would get their chance, but everyone had a moment that defined them. Tim hoped he continued to make the most of his as they came along.

  “The desert rat.” The Daughters laughed together.

  Sabrina thrust her sword at them. “He would have made a fine challenge in his youth.”

  “If we can’t have his blood, we’ll have yours.” Savine lifted her blade in challenge. “Try and die well.”

  “I do get so tired of the screams,” Sabrina chided as they moved forward.

  Cassie snarled. “Normally I like it when a woman has a big old set of brass lady balls, but these two rub me the wrong way.”

  “She said they rub her the wrong way.” JaKobi was laughing with maniacal glee as he sent the first blast of fire heading toward the Daughters.

  Tim cast Curse of Giving on each of the bosses. The double healing provided to Cassie should allow him a little flexibility when it came to approaching how to handle the rest of the battle. As the tank and the Daughters clashed, he found himself holding his breath until the initial confrontation was over.

  Cassie had split her staff in two and was using it to fend off their blades. A few of their strikes were getting through, but his curses took care of most of the damage. Tim looked over everyone’s health to make sure he wasn’t missing anything and cast Healing Orb on the tank to bring her back to full health.

  The Daughters moved together so fluidly that whenever one was attacking the other was defending. Their blades knocked arrows out of the air and swept magical attacks aside as if they were nothing. Even ShadowLily joining the battle didn’t do much to increase their DPS. It added a little extra to the amount of healing he had to put out.

  He hoped this wasn’t another fight where they’d be at a stalemate until there was some kind of mechanic to bail them out. What he wanted right now was a straight-up knuckle-busting slugfest—their swords against his team’s wit. Whoever desired the win the most would come out on top. His group was giving it everything they had, but right now, their progress had stalled.

  The Daughters shimmered again and suddenly became one woman twice the size, with a single sword to match. Cassie took a nasty cut to the leg before she snapped her staff back into a single piece to fight against the new threat.

  Tim had his hands full topping off the tank's health while simultaneously keeping his jaw from dropping. Neema said they fought as one, not that they became one actual person. He wasn’t ready for it, and neither was Cassie, and it almost cost them everything. The tank's health was close to full, but his mana had taken a beating in the process.

  Everyone else seemed to have only minor nicks so Tim sent out a quick round of Healing Orb before focusing on Cassie again. Casting Behold My Power next was risky, but if he didn’t do it now, he might not get to use it at all. Having the spell off cooldown was one thing. Having the mana to heal everyone on top of casting it late in the fight was something else entirely.

  The first wave of damage feedback staggered the group for a moment. He hoped when he reached the spell’s next tier the stagger effect would be lessened or removed altogether. He could handle the damage with a round of Healing Orb, but the seconds he lost casting them might be better used doing something else.

  The Daughters were all power in their new form. Speed was a thing of the past. Each one of their strikes was lethal. Cassie was being pushed back farther with each attack and taking a ton of damage. The Daughters weren’t faring much better. Focusing on the tank exposed them to a lot of extra damage.

  When the Daughter’s health hit eighty percent, they split back into two.

  Sabrina and Savine moved so quickly he couldn’t follow their motions. All Tim knew as it happened was that normal people couldn’t move that fast, and his team was in a shitload of trouble. When the sword appeared in his stomach a second later, his suspicions were confirmed. Luckily for him, Sabrina had picked a different target or he’d be walking into Barbara’s office already.

  JaKobi had a look on his face that said, “why is it always me?” as Sabrina pulled her sword free. The fire mage grimaced as he fell to his knees. “Now, can I call them bitches?”

  Cassie flew into the battle and pulled Sabrina off her man. “You have my permission to call them whatever you want.”

  Blood bubbled from his lips as he tried to stand up. “Time to smack a bitch up.”

  Tim was trying to laugh, but it was hard when you had a sword shoved through your guts. He didn’t have the quick one-liners down like JaKobi, but the mage had bought him some time to think of something. All it took for Tim’s smile to slip was Savine pulling the sword back out of his stomach.

  He might have even cried a little.

  Savine looked down at Tim as she prepared to finish him off. “What, nothing smart to say?”

  While he might not have been thinking straight when the opportunity presented itself, Tim didn’t miss his moment. “Look out behind you.”

  The warning didn’t give Savine enough time to defend herself from the backstab.

  When she screamed in pain, all Tim could think about was when his torment would end. He tried to cast Healing Orb, but his health was draining too quickly. Tim’s mind was starting to get a little fuzzy. Blood loss was a real downer. If he couldn’t heal, maybe he had one last trick in his bag.

  Tim switched into his Way of the River stance. Cassie let out a little squawk as some of her defensive protections failed. The tank could be pissed off at him after they all lived, but his plan would have to work first. Behold My Power hit them again, and his health plunged to just under fifteen percent. JaKobi wasn’t doing much better. It would all be over soon, one way or another. The next wave of his spell dropped them to five percent health.

  Then Behold My Power worked its magic.

  Tim was instantly back up to sixty percent health. A moment later, he switched back into his Way of the Boulder stance to help Cassie out and cast Healing Storm. He didn’t have enough mana to channel the spell as long as he would have liked, but it took the worst of the edge off. A few more heals and everything would be back to the status quo for the time being.

  He looked over his stats and those of the party and realized they could probably survive one more round like the last one before he was totally spent. As he thought about what was coming next, the Daughters shifted forms back into the single warrior. The boss’ health still showed the two separate bars although they were one woman now. Sabrina’s health was at fifty-five percent, and Savine’s at sixty percent.

  Tim didn’t know if this was one of those situations where they had to keep the boss' health close or the other one would get a buff, but it seemed to be happening pretty naturally so he decided not to cause a fuss about it. All they had to do was keep their health moving down. If they survived one more split, they would have enough DPS to end the fight easily.

  That was when the red circles appeared on the ground.

  Red was one of the universal colors that meant a player needed to run because something bad was about to go down. There was a reason they used the color on stop signs and for stoplights. One thing any gamer worth his salt knew was that you never stood in the red circles if you wanted to live.

  So instead of insulting the team by shouting out a red is dead warning, Tim simply called, “Watch your feet!”

  Cassie started to turn the boss to give them the most room to maneuver, and the DPS followed her out of the red circles with time to spare. Tim kept up the healing and reapplied Curse of Giving as they settled into their new
position.

  Two pots flew out of the fort and landed on the ground. As the containers shattered, they filled the red circles with flames. The burning pitch looked like it would last for hours, more than long enough for them to run out of space if they weren’t careful. Now things were getting tricky, and Cassie would have to watch her placement of the boss to minimize their chance of taking fire damage. They also needed to cluster in two groups so if the pots targeted random people they could still control the placement.

  “ShadowLily, get up front with Cassie.” He turned toward the others. “I want you guys stuck on my ass like the creeper at the club who won’t catch a hint.”

  JaKobi grinned. “Bro, you're not supposed to use cross-sexualized metaphors, but I’d give the system all the gold in my account right now if some guy appeared and started grinding on your ass.”

  “Just kill the boss. We can talk about my hot ass later.” Tim sent out his next round of healing.

  Two more red circles appeared, and this time they were in predictable spots under the players’ feet. Cassie was able to rotate the boss, and they all got to safety with time to spare. That was when the Daughters split again.

  Tim cast Who Needs A Shield on himself as a precaution. If he got hit again, he needed to be able to cast.

  Sabrina’s blade tore into ShadowLily. “Payback’s a bitch, hon.”

  “Funny, we were just saying the same thing about you,” ShadowLily ground out between jagged gasps for air.

  Savine came straight for Tim, and he realized this was when being a healer sucked.

  Getting stabbed once in a day was enough, but twice, fuck that noise. Tim was ready to see these two go down. Stab me twice, shame on you, stab me thrice shame on me.

  The Daughters continued their relentless assault as he worked to get off a Healing Orb. The spell took effect, and he healed the others before the damage could get any worse. Tim was so impressed by their group. It didn’t matter what happened. Someone was always ready to pick up the slack. They worked so well together that it was probably the best group he’d ever been a part of in his life.