Deserts Of Naroosh

by Bradford Bates

  JaKobi looked at Tim. “You know what this means, bro?”

  “I’m still trying to figure out if I was being insulted, but all I heard was pizza. Then I tuned everything else out.” Tim couldn’t keep the visions of all that cheesy pepperoni goodness out of his head.

  The fire mage jumped up and down. “No man, it means we get to have a pizza party!”

  “What are you, five?” Cassie looked exasperated.

  ShadowLily put an arm around her shoulders. “You’ve got it simple. He only has to light stuff on fire. I gotta keep Tim’s mind off pizza, or we’re all going to die.”

  “No pizza for losers.” Lorelei looked at them. “So get your shit together and let’s do this.” She took the lead as they walked toward the palace.

  Tim watched her go. “Little rough around the edges, but I kind of like her.”

  “What’s not to like?” Lorelei called back with some sass and put a little swagger into her walk.

  “That’s what I meant to say.” Tim looked at the ground. He was hopeless with women, even the ones that liked other women.

  Lorelei was right. It was time to stop dicking around. Pizza and beer could come later. Right now, they needed to worry about making it to the theater and taking care of business.

  Tim spun his finger in a circle above his head. “Okay, adventurers, let’s get to adventuring.”

  They followed Lorelei’s path out of the tent and headed for the palace.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  The palace courtyard was more spectacular than he imagined.

  The rest of the city had been beautiful, but this was next level. Even with the dead bodies strewn around the grounds and the occasional fountain spraying pinkish water, Tim could see the beauty hidden underneath it all. Manicured gardens, stylishly painted murals, and handcrafted sculptures lined the walkways.

  There was so much to see, and they hadn’t made it inside yet.

  “No wonder Khalid wants back in here.” Cassie snorted. “Talk about an upgrade.”

  JaKobi wiped some blood off a tile to get a better look at the picture underneath. “The oasis is nice and all, but this is like going from a strip mall hotel by the airport to a private resort in Bali.”

  There wasn’t much else to be said so Tim started moving forward again. The place was awesome, but it kind of reminded him of the formal living room at his friend’s house. What was the point of an entire damn room if no one ever got to use it? It was like having dedicated dining rooms. It was a large space with a giant table that was probably only used a few times a year. Kinda seemed like a waste to dedicate so much space to something not that functional. In other words, he liked things he could live in.

  Having to worry if his shoes scuffed the marble wasn’t his type of thing.

  Not that Tim couldn’t appreciate expensive things when they were around. The amount of work that went into every detail of this place was astounding. What he’d love to do was see some of these people create their art. Even without the ability to watch the artists, being here and living in this moment was a million times better than any museum he’d ever visited. He moved toward a wall and rubbed his fingers against a thick hemp tapestry with an image of Jabari woven into it.

  It was like being able to touch history.

  Tim turned away from the fabric, looking for something else that was cool, and saw a group of three men charging toward them with their swords drawn.

  He turned away from the palace entrance and gently pushed Cassie in front of him. “You’re up.”

  “What are you talking about?” The tank squawked as Tim spun her to face the charging soldiers. “Oh.”

  Cassie’s staff appeared in her hands a moment later as the shock left her face. “Eat a bag of dicks, you Nazi fuckers!”

  JaKobi shrugged as Cassie charged at the men who were clearly not actual Nazis. “No one likes Nazis.”

  “Fuck it. I can get on board with that.” Tim smiled as he fired off a burst of Divine Light. “Even saw a movie where someone made Bratzis.”

  Once someone turned the Führer into little dickish sausage monsters, the world certainly felt like a more hilarious place.

  Cassie was in the midst of all three of Jabari’s soldiers now and taking a steady amount of damage. He quickly cast Who Needs a Shield and followed it up with a Healing Orb before going back to do more damage himself.

  The fun thing about trash packs for him was that he got to play a different style because the healing needs weren’t so dire. Tim rapidly cast Curse of Giving on all three men, providing Cassie with a constant stream of heals as she tried to keep their attention.

  One of the soldiers turned away from Cassie and sprinted at the ranger. There was nothing any of them could do to stop the attack as the man blurred across the open space. A blink of an eye later, and then he seemed to appear behind Lorelei. The ranger got her bow up in time to ward off the worst of the blow but still took a nasty cut across the arm.

  At least it wasn’t her head.

  Tim hit her with a burst of Healing Orb and blasted the fucker who attacked her with Divine Light. Before he could follow up, the man flashed forward again, this time slashing at ShadowLily’s back. Healing her through the damage wouldn’t be a problem, but this fight was now pulling on his resources almost as hard as the one with the Juggernaut.

  “All DPS on the slippery fucker. The other two can wait,” Tim called as the man blurred again, this time coming straight for him.

  He activated Quick Feet and dove to the side, avoiding the worst of the sword thrust. Tim cast Snare on the man hoping to trip him up before he could attack again and climbed back to his feet. He healed himself as he waited for the others to kill the man.

  Flames washed over Mr. McStabbyPants as JaKobi went to work. It seemed that being quick didn’t make the soldier any less combustible. With their one surprise out of the way, the other two soldiers died almost instantly. The fight had been a little more than Tim bargained for. Maybe the game was giving them a subtle hint that shit was about to get real, and the difficulty of the encounters was about to get kicked up a notch.

  It had been a while since they faced trash mobs going into a fight. While not having to face them between every encounter was a welcome reprieve, he wasn’t surprised the trash mobs had made a reappearance. Normally these fights were pretty simple, but this one had almost rocked their world. He was pretty sure that if they faced the same encounter again, it would go much better for them.

  “I thought Khalid would have emptied this place by now.” Lorelei looked around, confused.

  Tim shrugged. “Guess Jabari had a few more reserves than Khalid planned for. Now that we know they’re here, Cassie will take the lead, and the rest of us will follow her.”

  “I kinda like the sound of that.” Cassie turned to address the group. “As your new leader, I‘d first like to say thank you for the vote of confidence. I know that our last leader lacked many of the natural qualities normally associated with...”

  “Hey,” Tim cried. “You run forward and get hit a lot. I’ll try and decide if you're worthy of heals based on your performance.” He tried to make his statement sound serious, but they all knew he was a softie at heart.

  Cassie blew him a giant raspberry and moved forward again.

  Trash fights were kind of fun, but in most games, they served two primary purposes. The first was to make the instance take longer. If players went in and only faced three bosses and a mini-boss, they would burn through the content before the developers had a chance to work on something new. When the business model was based on keeping players subscribed to a monthly service, making the content take longer to beat was the key to generating more profits. The second reason was that it gave the developers a chance to give players some coin to balance out what they lost after dying to the bosses and repairing their gear.

  So far the inventory trick had worked on everything except Cassie’s completely shattered staff. That required a repair shop to fix
, but even then it didn’t cost a fortune. The trash mobs in The Etheric Coast dropped some coins into their inventories, but it was usually only a few coppers or silver. Nothing to write home about. These fights inside the palace were no different.

  “Follow me. If one of them starts zipping around, focus on that asshole first.” Cassie moved down the corridor with a confident swagger.

  The next group of three soldiers charged them instantly, but their group makeup looked different. Tim hadn’t been paying too much attention to the first set of fighters they faced, mostly because he was so surprised to see them, and he was trying not to get shivved. One thing he was pretty sure of was none of the guards in the previous group had shields, and all three of these men did.

  “Watch for new tricks,” Tim called to Cassie as he cast Curse of Giving on all three men.

  Never one to mince words when actions would speak louder, their tank charged into the fray. Her bō staff rose and fell as she ducked and dodged around the men. So far Cassie didn’t seem to be doing a ton of damage, but the tank certainly had the attention of all three men, and that was all she needed to accomplish for the DPS to go to work.

  There wasn’t much to be said about Jabari’s warriors' battle plan. They each had big-ass shields and decent-sized spears. If the shields were a little larger and didn’t have a small spike in the center, they would have looked like the famous ones used by the Spartans. While he loved watching Leonidas kick ass, Tim was less than enthused by the prospect of what would happen next.

  The three men moved quickly, surrounding Cassie, and lifted their shields as they ran forward.

  “At least we know what the spikes are for.” Tim gritted his teeth as he cast Who Needs a Shield and Healing Orb.

  Cassie got crunched by the shields, the spikes piercing her from three sides. “You better not call me a fucking kebob!”

  ShadowLily appeared a second later and dropped one of the guards from behind. “At least it was the enemies that did it to you.”

  “Next time if saving your ass requires filling it with arrows, I’ll just let you get roasted,” Lorelei quipped as she fired at one of the remaining attackers.

  Tim didn’t mind the witty banter since it kept them calm and focused. ShadowLily would get over being shot a few times by her friend eventually. Right now, they appeared to have the fight well in hand, but they needed to focus and ensure they finished off their attackers before getting too distracted.

  Cassie broke free as the guards split apart. One of the men faced the group, and the other hovered over Cassie, keeping her out of the fight.

  ShadowLily dodged a spear thrust and rolled backward, coming up next to the ranger. “I’d rather you keep saving me. Just expect me to keep bitching about it if said saving involves arrows sticking out of me.” She winked and disappeared.

  The guard saw Lorelei as an easy target and ran forward. “Death to the infidels!”

  “Shit.” The ranger got her bow up and fired a half-assed shot that bounced harmlessly off the guard’s shield.

  Tim switched his attention from Cassie to the ranger, knowing she’d need heals soon. Her bow was no match for the giant spike on the front of the guard’s shield.

  ShadowLily reappeared behind the soldier, easily cutting him down before he could reach his target. “These are my kind of fights.”

  Lorelei smirked as she jumped back a step to avoid the tumbling body. “It isn’t very sportsman-like to stab people in the back.”

  “But it is effective.” ShadowLily disappeared again, no doubt running toward the last target.

  The last guard fell as a flaming spear pierced through his chest from behind. JaKobi turned, looking extremely satisfied. “That wasn’t so bad.”

  Cassie pushed her entire hand through one of the rips in her tattered leather vest. “Not so bad? Those three spikes fucking hurt, and I’d really like not to have a repeat incident if we can avoid it.”

  The tank's armor disappeared and reappeared fully repaired a moment later. She looked at Tim. “Do you think we’ll see a lot more of these packs?”

  “I don’t have a clue, but unless the game is trying to make up for lost time, there can’t be too many more before we reach the theater.”

  “Let’s keep moving.” Lorelei prodded them along.

  Tim sagely nodded as if it was his idea. “You know what guys, I think it’s time to keep moving.”

  “Fucker.” The ranger tried to hide her smile, but it was impossible with how warmly it glowed.

  Tim laughed. “Lorelei is right. Let’s keep pushing forward. Cassie, you have the lead.”

  As the tank started moving again, Tim made sure to follow at a distance while keeping his spiel going. “For the groups with a speedster, attack him first. For the three shields, we’ll have to play it by ear and try and take down one of them before they can crush our lovely Miss Cassie.”

  “In other words, get used to having sharp spikes driven through your body,” Cassie grumbled.

  “That’s why you get the big bucks.” Tim laughed to himself.

  It wasn’t much of a joke, but he felt giddy. Things were going well for them, and while one of their biggest challenges was still on the way, the future felt rife with opportunity. He wanted to get to the theater and find out if they would get a crack at Jabari or be stuck facing down the Goliath. The next group of trash appeared, and his thoughts turned back to the fight at hand, knowing they’d be standing in front of the boss in no time.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  The last pack of trash before the boss went down.

  At least he hoped it was the last pack. After his bold statement about how soon they would reach the boss, Tim was shocked at how many groups they’d run into. Five or six pulls between bosses was all fine and dandy, but that was trash pack number thirteen and Cassie wasn’t the only one starting to grumble. The only good news was Jabari couldn’t have many men left.

  Cassie led them around a corner, and Tim let out a huge sigh of relief. A giant set of golden double doors marked the entrance to the theater. As their group approached, both opened as if to invite them inside. From where they stood outside, he could see the massive room beyond.

  Looking through the doors, Tim wouldn’t have been surprised to find they could have easily fit a football field inside, or at least half of one. It was the biggest theater he’d ever seen, but it wasn’t as though they had movies. So if they wanted to reenact large-scale battles, they needed some space. It wasn’t what he was expecting, and the area was big enough that anything could be waiting for them inside.

  This was going to get interesting.

  “Double-check your buffs.” Tim knew they should all be good, but checking everything before a battle was a hard habit to break.

  ShadowLily popped back into existence. “This has to be the boss. Whatever comes our way, roll with the punches and wait for Tim to make the calls.”

  “You keep giving instructions like that, and I’m going to be out of a job.” Tim didn’t mind if she wanted to be in charge.

  He was kind of their leader by default. Their group was so competent he didn’t have to do much in the way of actual leading. During the fights, he made the calls because he was in the best position to do it. If they ever had to start recruiting, he wouldn’t want to be in charge anyway.

  “Only a crazy person would want to run a guild.” ShadowLily laughed. “I think you can hold onto that responsibility for a while.”

  Cassie stood in the entrance waiting for the rest of them to stop yapping and catch up. “Stay behind me, and everything will be fine.”

  “Words to live by.” JaKobi gave her a sly grin. “Let’s do what the little lady says.”

  Lorelei moved into position. “You better pucker up before you kiss an ass that hard.”

  “How I pucker and where is none of your business.” JaKobi was grinning from ear to ear at the expression on Lorelei’s face as he turned to look at Cassie. “I think it’s safe to proceed.”r />
  Cassie glanced at Tim. He nodded, and she stepped into the room. The rest of their group quickly followed her inside, and the faint red glow showed that the room had sealed and they wouldn’t be able to leave the area unless they died or killed the boss.

  Now that they were inside the theater, Tim noticed a series of box seats above and to the left of them and a massive suite looking down at the center of the space. Tim guessed that was the royal box or the VIP section. The upper right-hand side of the room was devoid of any seating options.

  As Tim finished looking over the area, the sound of a door opening came from in front of them, and a man appeared in the royal box. He moved down the rows of seats until he stood at the waist-high railing looking down upon them. The sneer on his face was of near-mythical proportions.

  This must have been Jabari.

  The ruler of Nar’ha wore beautiful blue and white silk cloth from head to toe. His robes were probably worth more than half the damn city. Tim stopped trying to count the jewels that hung from his neck, wrist, and fingers. However, the entire outfit wouldn’t have been complete without the crown.

  Made of solid white gold and shaped to look like a cobra rising behind Jabari’s head, it was one hell of a sight. The amount of craftsmanship that went into making something like that must have been unreal. A man like Jabari didn’t deserve something so beautiful, but he didn’t only have a crown.

  There was a matching scepter.

  It must have taken a hundred masters a hundred years to make something so intricate. The scepter itself was made from the same white gold as the crown but was broken up by solid blue lines at matching intervals until they reached a round ball on top. Sitting on top was a spider made of onyx.

  It was the only thing Tim would have changed about the ruler’s entire look. Why ruin such a badass outfit with spiders? Snakes he could get, maybe even an alligator, but why a freaking spider?