Zones of Alacria- The Dragon Gate

by K R Dimmick

  Somehow, Damir made it to the other side successfully. Arik, visibly shaking, started to make his way across as well. With his fear of heights, this crossing must have been insanely hard for him, but credit where credit is due, he was doing it anyway.

  Mikael, Kira and Baynor had killed the first three beetles, but I could see another stream of them coming in from behind us.

  Saris limped out of the forest, clutching her arm which was bleeding profusely.

  I cast Wound Seal again, making sure the hole in her arm was closed up and her twisted ankle repaired.

  “Got him,” she announced grimly, stabbing at one of the beetles. “Yet another Dragon Hunter.”

  I had no idea how Andrew knew we’d be here and when we’d get to this point, but he clearly did.

  “Can anyone push one of these things back?” I asked. “I can hit it with a Fireball, but it’ll explode when I do, so we need them to be farther away from us.”

  Mikael replied by shooting three arrows in quick succession at the one on the right side. Somehow, the arrows stunned the beetle, then pushed it back down the rocky path away from us, leaving it with 30% HP.

  I pulled my mana into my right hand, forming a Fireball and directed it to hit the beetle in the head.

  “Close your eyes,” I yelled, remembering the previous time when the explosion had blinded me for five seconds.

  The fire hit the beetle, quickly spreading to the acid sac underneath. A huge boom split the air and we were all blown backward. Thankfully, no one went over the edge, but the bridge swayed alarmingly in the aftershock and one of the wooden slats fell down into the gorge.

  I hurriedly cast Healing Mist on everyone. Time to let the others deal with the final two beetles.

  “Sorry,” I mumbled. “I didn’t realize the explosion would be that forceful.”

  Mikael, Kira and Baynor peppered the two remaining beetles with arrows while I told Soter to cross the bridge next.

  The closest beetle went down, looking like a pin cushion laying on its back. The last one was down to 7% HP when it reared up on its hind legs and started spraying acid everywhere. I watched, useless, as a few drops of acid landed on each of the supports for the rope bridge and started eating away at the rope.

  “It hit the bridge, we need to cross before it collapses,” I yelled.

  “Go,” Saris shouted back, “You’re the one that needs to get across the most, we’ll follow.”

  She had a point. I quickly cast Healing Mist on everyone and launched myself onto the bridge.

  Every slat I stepped on creaked and left me wondering if it was about to crack. I couldn’t slow down, though. The rope was still smoking where the acid had touched it. I reached the middle of the bridge to find that two adjacent slats were missing. At my height, that meant I would have to jump to be able to reach the next slat. Taking a deep breath, I launched myself forward. The edge of my boots touched the wood, but my foot started to slip off. I grabbed the handrail and pulled. My feet fell out from under me, but I managed to hang on with my hands. Swinging my legs back up, I got one, then the other, onto the slat and pushed myself upward.

  By this time, the others had killed the remaining beetles and Mikael was a quarter of the way across the bridge.

  “Faster,” he yelled.

  I pulled with everything I had and managed to get myself upright again.

  “Catch,” Arik yelled, throwing one of the ropes toward me.

  Part running, part jumping and part pulling on the rope, I got myself to the other side of the bridge.

  Looking back, I could see Mikael was nearly across and Kira was just starting.

  A loud twang burst from the start of the bridge. The acid had eaten through one of the two ropes that were twisted together to form the support on the left. It split into two, with the remaining one still smoking.

  Mikael was off the bridge already, urging everyone to be faster. Kira was nearly there, and Allion was about to reach the halfway mark. The second Kira stepped off the end, Saris started crossing.

  Before she could get her foot on the first slat, one of the two ropes on the right side split into two, causing the bridge to sway violently to the side.

  The bridge had looked dangerous to cross before, and now it looked downright suicidal.

  We heard another loud twang, and the left handrail collapsed just as Allion jumped the middle gap and landed on the far slat. The wood under Allion’s feet gave way with a huge crack. Somehow, he managed to catch himself and swing forward to reach the next slat. However, there were now three slats missing for Saris.

  With a cry of relief, Allion reached the end and collapsed onto the ground, hugging it desperately.

  The rest of us turned to watch Saris. Taking a running jump off the previous slats, aided by an agility level that could only have come from investing everything into Dexterity, she cleared the three empty spaces and landed on the next slat.

  Baynor was now a quarter of the way across the bridge, almost running at a full sprint. I only hoped he had a similar stat configuration as Saris, or he was going to be in trouble.

  An ominous crack split the air just as Saris reached the end of the bridge. The right handrail collapsed, leaving Baynor just in front of the gap with no handrail support. Like Saris, he leapt as far as he could to cross the missing slats. Unlike Saris, when he came back down, the left side rope holding the slats together split.

  Time seemed to stand still. I watched the horror cross his face, as the slat underneath him fell away. His arms pinwheeled as he desperately tried to catch the remaining rope on the right side. He missed. He started falling down toward the bottom of the gorge and the river below.

  All of a sudden, he just vanished.

  We all stood there, horrified, looking down at the river, completely lost for words. I knew he couldn’t actually die, but I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to go to respawn from falling to your death. It just didn’t bear thinking about.

  “Well, at least he won’t be dead long,” Allion stated, causing everyone to turn toward him and glare.

  After a brief rest and some food, we were all fully buffed and ready for whatever would come next. We started climbing back up toward the hill with the stone circle at the top.

  Without warning, Damir stopped in his tracks, causing Arik to walk into his back.

  “Faelyn just sent me a message,” he stated, going rather pale. “The Dragon Hunters are attacking El Sanctum again. In full force. I’m needed back there to make sure the barrier doesn’t fall.”

  “Go,” I replied instantly, “You can’t leave the elves without any magical help.”

  “He also said Baynor is there, helping them fight. Apparently, he jumped to the guildhall on his way down,” he said, grinning as he disappeared, taking the same route back.

  In the space of a few minutes, my party had been reduced from eight to six, one of whom, at level 7, would be useless in a fight, and I hadn’t even reached my destination yet, let alone dealt with Andrew. I had no idea how I was going to do this.

  I had to assume Andrew would be there at the top of this hill. I was now the only magic user here. Somehow, I had to beat someone who could simply wave his hands and make me do whatever he wanted, and so far, I’d been unable to resist him. I don’t know what made me think this time would be any different, I thought dejectedly.

  He is rigid, you are not. Soter tried to pull me out of the dark spiral I seemed to be falling into.

  I was walking into battle with a skill and spell I’d never used before, against an opponent I’d never beaten, who seemed to somehow know my every move before I made it. The only possible outcome was that I’d get my friends killed. Friends who couldn’t respawn.

  “Owww!” I screamed. “What was that for?”

  I turned to glare at Soter who’d just bitten me.

  You needed it, he replied simply, proceeding to sit down on the floor and clean his paws.

  He was probably right, I thought, rub
bing my behind while I cast Healing Mist.

  “Guys. And girls,” I added, in response to a glare from Saris. “If we aren’t all just going to die, we need a better plan for when we get up there. We can’t simply walk in and expect to beat Andrew when, so far, none of us have managed it. I’m open to ideas, if you want to chip in at any point.”

  “I think we need to leave Arik outside of the stone circle for when the fight is over,” I continued. “Since we can’t leave him alone, either, I think Kira needs to stay with him. What do you think?”

  “I understand sidelining me, but you’re going to need Kira,” Arik objected. “She’s one of your highest-level fighters.”

  “I know,” I replied. “But we can’t leave you unprotected, either. As you pointed out, you’re the only one who can help me find the runes I’ll be looking for.”

  Arik looked a little upset, but eventually agreed that leaving Kira with him was the best thing to do.

  Allion’s eyes glazed over a little, presumably trying to come up with plans.

  “What do we know about him and how he fights?” asked Mikael.

  “Well, there’s a good chance that, even down two people, we’ll outnumber him,” Saris offered. “He’s arrogant and he’ll assume he can easily beat us on his own. There might be a couple of people with him, but he also might actually be alone.”

  Mikael started laughing.

  “He can also make you do anything he wants,” I added, stopping Mikael’s laughter in its tracks. “Do any of you have anything invested into Fortitude?”

  Everyone shook their heads, so I handed each of them a Fortitude Potion.

  “This will at least give you ten points of it for an hour,” I said. “We’ll all take them as soon as we get going again.”

  “He also thinks all NPCs, I mean locals,” Saris amended at the confused looks everyone gave her, “Are there to be used and discarded as he sees fit. He doesn’t care for them at all. So, he’ll happily kill any of you off without a second thought.”

  Allion looked like he was about to object but changed his mind.

  “Remember, we all have Freezing Bombs,” I said. “Anytime you get a chance to throw one, do so. I don’t know if that will stop him from using his Mind Magic, but it stopped me from being able to cast, so there’s a good chance it will stop him, too.”

  A few plans were thrown around and we decided how we were going to start the fight at least, even though it would probably change very quickly once we knew who else was up there.

  “Okay,” I said. “It’s time. We buff with everything we have, then we go.”

  Mikael handed out the Magic Resistance potions I’d given him to carry.

  Drinking mine, I followed it with a Fortitude potion, an Intelligence potion and a Wisdom potion, chasing them down with a Star Orange Cupcake and a piece of Chicken Mushroom that Arik offered me.

  It was the largest amount of buffs I’d ever had going at one time. Thankfully, they didn’t interact with each other and have any horrible side effects.

  “Let’s go,” I declared, standing up.

  62

  Wait. What?

  We climbed up the hill, trying to spot a safe place where we could leave Arik and Kira.

  “What about here?” Arik asked, pointing to a little alcove behind a huge rock that was lying on its side.

  “That could work,” replied Kira. “The rock itself covers your back, and I’ll be the only one someone outside can reach if they attack.”

  Everyone agreed, but Mikael insisted we retrace our steps and cover our tracks leading up to the place, so they’d be even harder to spot.

  “As soon as we’re done with the fight and it’s safe, I’ll let Arik know,” I said. “No matter what happens, we still have the long-range communication sigils. So, if something goes wrong and I end up respawning, I can tell you to make a run for it as well.”

  We backtracked down the hill until we found another easy route to the top. After about ten minutes, Mikael joined us, having erased our tracks as much as possible.

  “We all need to have a Freezing Bomb ready in our hands for when we get there,” I told everyone, taking one out of my inventory. “If we all come in from different directions, we might be able to get one of these to hit Andrew before he can react.”

  “I’ve got a better idea,” Mikael’s eyes lit up as an evil grin spread across his face.

  We worked out where we each needed to be for Mikael’s idea and headed out in separate directions. As soon as each person was in place, they would message me. Once I’d heard from everyone, I would send a war party message out to start the plan.

  I slowly climbed toward the top, making sure to keep as low to the ground as possible so hopefully no one would see us coming. Soter was beside me, doing a much better job of being silent and inconspicuous.

  Just as I neared the edge of the flat area, the three others let me know they were in position.

  “On three,” I sent via party message. “One, two, three.”

  I threw my Freezing Bomb as hard as I could toward the center of the stone circle. The others were hopefully doing the same. With luck, Andrew would be standing there, waiting for us, and he’d now be trapped in a massive ice cube.

  “Forward now,” I sent in a message as I stood up and ran in toward the stone circle.

  Sure enough, right there, in the middle of the stone circle, between the eight huge, vertical stone blocks, was a massive ice cube. I started grinning. Mikael was a genius.

  Inside the block of ice was a man who had been holding his hands up to shield his face. He wasn’t dressed in one of Andrew’s fancy robes, but maybe Andrew had decided to put some armor on for this fight.

  Just as my grin was starting to slip and I was wondering if we’d made a mistake, an oily voice I’d wished to never hear again flowed through the air.

  “Did you honestly think I’d just stand still in the center and let you hit me with a Freezing Bomb?”

  I spun around in time to see Andrew walking into the stone circle from behind one of the pillars. How had no one noticed him there? I looked between Allion and Saris since they were the ones closest to where he had been.

  “Ah, yes. I see it’s finally dawned on your little brain that you might have a traitor in your midst,” he said, as a smile slid across his face. “Did you enjoy the little surprises along the way?”

  He casually looked around our group.

  “I had thought there were a few more with you. I assume at least one of them… fell away?” he chuckled as I lost it.

  “That’s it, you…” I shouted as I stupidly ran at him.

  It would’ve been nice to think Andrew had made me attack him with his Mind Magic, but truthfully, I was just angry.

  “Now, now,” he said smoothly, waving his hands around. “We can’t have you doing anything stupid, now can we?”

  He chuckled again as I was frozen in my tracks, completely unable to move. I could only assume everyone else was trapped the same way.

  “At least not yet, anyway,” he grinned, or more like bared his teeth.

  “Now, if I’m right, Joe should unfreeze in a few moments.”

  So that was who we’d managed to disable with our Freezing Bombs, the sane part of my mind thought, as the rest of it raged against being trapped.

  “While we’re waiting, let’s see if there are any disagreements or tension going on in your little team, shall we?” he asked, waving his hands and casting something on Mikael and Allion.

  “I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you,” Mikael shouted, lunging at Allion with a knife I didn’t know he had.

  Allion tried to block him, but Mikael was too fast.

  “Really? Am I the only one who can see the truth?” taunted Allion. “The elves were safe until you humans showed up and you were the one who opened the floodgates for them. I think you’re the problem.”

  I watched them go at each other without holding anything back, desperately trying to kill on
e another while I looked on, helpless to stop them.

  All of a sudden, Allion made a mistake. Mikael didn’t hesitate and lunged in, plunging his dagger into Allion’s throat. I tried to scream, but couldn’t. All I could do was watch Allion’s health slip away, courtesy of the bleeding debuff, until he finally reached 0 HP.

  I focused as hard as I could. There had to be a way to overcome this mind control. I sought my center. Who was I? I asked myself, trying not to get distracted by Allion’s lifeless body. The trouble was, I couldn’t close my eyes and I was currently staring at the blood pooled around him. Focus. What is me and what is not?

  “As for you, traitor! I knew Orianna shouldn’t have rescued you!” Mikael yelled, turning toward Saris, who was suddenly unfrozen.

  I was never going to be able to concentrate enough while Mikael attacked a second member of my team, but somehow, I had to get free in the next minute and a half so I could rez Allion.

  Mikael, stop, it’s not real. I thought hard at him. You have to fight what Andrew is making you do.

  “I’m on your side, idiot,” Saris yelled at Mikael, trying to deflect all of his attacks without hitting him back. “Stop attacking your own team.”

  “Ooh, don’t you just love the confusion,” grinned Andrew. “The deserters don’t know who to trust anymore. That’s what you get for siding with NPCs.”

  Finally, Soter managed to break free of Andrew’s spell. He pounced on Mikael, pushing him off Saris, who was already down to 25% HP.

  Fight.

  I’m trying, I sent back to Soter.

  Try harder.

  Soter and Mikael rolled across the clearing, while Andrew sat down on a nearby stone and took out some food. He proceeded to watch them like he was at some kind of twisted fighting match. It just made my blood boil even more, which, unfortunately, was probably what he wanted to happen.

  Mikael, this isn’t you, I thought at him.

  It was time to let Soter handle Mikael. Saris was down to 20% HP and was still bleeding. I’d better work out how to get free quickly, or we’re all dead, I thought grimly.