Another thing on their side was that the opposition was getting bored. They had to keep defenses for both their cities and an attack going. With such little headway being made, many of the legion's army had left to quest or do other tasks, except on occasions where they prepared for big pushes. The Coalition's spies had managed to keep on top of such matters and had plenty of defenses up when the massive assaults occurred.
There was, however, always at least a small attack force trying to breach the walls. Small compared to the truly massive force they could unleash during more precise attacks. The ground was torn apart from the hundreds of people who fought and died in the field no matter what the weather, and craters surrounded the area where catapult's had struck. Tall walls of dirt and stone were strewn about, created by powerful holy beast magic.
Asura landed in the inner courtyard and quickly made her way through the exits and out towards the full battle. The sounds of metal and spell enveloped her almost instantly, screams almost overpowering compared to the inner courtyard. A barricade had been set up where angels were sending out healing spells left and right, while the close range fighters kept the legion out of the barricade, forcing the enemy to pepper the area with arrows which had trouble hitting with the walls blocking them.
She charged straight into the fray, stepping around a fellow leviathan and bashing her shield into a demon, before driving her club down between the man's eyes. She quickly joined besides fellow shield bearers and they formed a shield wall with which to fight, bashing and slashing through the hordes as they came. Unfortunately, they were still horribly outnumbered, but the fortress was designed with only one side that could be feasibly assaulted by a large force, and since they were forced to funnel into a tighter area the Coalition was able to hold them off with smaller numbers. Oddly, the skies seemed mostly clear as no one seemed willing to use flight to fight. Only a few enemies seemed to have the weapons to destroy or go through shields, and they tended to be targeted first.
It wasn't long before her shield arm began to get tired with every attack striking against it, and no chances to rest. She lost track of time, as well as how many wounds she had suffered and been healed, as someone else with a shield took her place. She made her way back behind the barricade and sat down, holding her head. “So... loud. How is this still going?” she asked with a groan.
“You came during one of the heaviest times. In a few hours most the fighting tends to die down and a lot of the heavier fighters run off,” a nearby angel said as he glanced over.
“How? WHY? It's just... boring! The line has only moved a few feet since I've been out here! Why would-- shit!” she shrieked when a massive fireball enveloped the wall of shields and sent them scattering. She grinned wickedly before her shield disappeared and her sword formed in her off hand a moment later. “Okay, I think I see. But--”
“Have you tried lowering the volume?” the angel asked.
Asura froze for a few moments before hanging her head. “No. I honestly hadn't even... wow, I'm an idiot...” She brought up the menu and lowered the volume before charging back into the fray, swinging her mace and sword into the hordes while the Coalition attempted to form another wall of shields. Those in the barricade cast spells to attempt to stop any more explosions from getting through to them. Shrugging she looked ahead, towards the back of the enemies lines where their catapults and other ballista were stationed. Spreading her wings she took to the air and flew straight at them.
“No! Don't!” a voice yelled from behind her, though she quickly realized why no one had been flying. While the Coalition had more wings with the angel's, the legion had something equally as important. Arrows.
“Ice barrier!” she screamed while arrows shot at her, forcing her back down. She glanced and let out a curse, she was flying over the legion and would be slaughtered if she landed like this. She sheathed her sword and held out her left hand. “Tornado!” Powerful winds knocked some of them away and she dropped back down and drew her blade again. Surrounded on all sides she swung her blade with all her might when they charged her. Her HP disappeared rapidly before finally hitting zero.
------
Countless more deaths found Asura before she retreated from the battle to lay down in the fortress's library. While technically there weren't any books from the game created for it, player's could, like in many other games, access an online library or read their own downloaded books while immersed in a proper environment. Or, as was her case, lounge about on the cushions as they waited for the headache to go away.
“Have fun?” a familiar voice asked, causing her to look up.
“Wha? Star? Ugh... What do yah want...” She groaned and lifted her head from the cushion to look at the angel.
“See how you were doing. Surprised to see you down here, I thought you'd be preparing.”
“Tired. Didn't wanna log off...” Asura said with a shrug.
“Yeah... you've been doing that a lot lately. Is everything okay? Are you getting enough sleep in the real world? Maybe you should--”
“I'm doing fine. I just... it's harder to sleep in the real world. These are more comfortable. Besides, I was fighting for like, two hours! I deserve this break... my head hurts...” She let out a groan and lowered her head. “So many death penalties... I really should have called it quit ages ago.”
He snickered and nudged her with his hand. “Mutt's friend will be coming on soon. You ready for this? Wanna try another time?”
“No... yes... I don't know... probably. I'm ready. So the message said it was one of your friends who got you us the information, right?” she asked before moving to rest her chin on the side of the furniture.
“Yeah,” he said shyly while glancing off to the side, his arms wrapping around his chest.
“Well... thank you. It means a lot that you were able to help them and all,” she said before turning back to face him. “Especially since it was my fault they were captured to begin with so... thanks for picking up for my mistakes.”
“I-It's nothing, really. I know you'd do the same for me if you had too...” he said gently while shuffling nervously from foot to foot.
“I guess... but hey, we're in this together,” Asura said and patted his arm. “If you got captured I'd probably end up getting captured with you. Then we'd just break out together, easy.”
“Heh. Maybe. So enjoying the cushions?”
“Oh god yes. Are real libraries this comfy?”
“No, not generally. The one where I live all the cushions have holes in them and smell like old socks,” 5t4r said with a smirk.
She cringed and shook her head. “Ew. Thanks for that mental image...”
“Don't you ever go to the library? How do you watch movies or get books?”
“Huh? I haven't been to a library since I was six,” she said with another shrug.
“Wow, you must be rich. Lucky,” he said as his eyes went a little wide.
“Errr... sorta,” she said before lowering her gaze. “My parents have a bit of money, but I mostly don't read or watch much. Most my time is spent on here trying to get better at the game.”
“What about school?”
“... I uhhh, graduated early. I do some studying in my off time,” she said before hugging her knees to her chest and burying her head in them. A message popped up, grabbing her attention. She groaned before getting to her feet and stretching. “Just as I was getting comfortable, too. Seems it's time to go. Everyone's here.” She sent 5t4r a group invite and moments later received one from B4hamutt.
“Okay everyone,” Scalios's voice could be heard over the party chat. “Meet me on the roof. We'll be heading out as angels to bypass a lot of the defenses. Hope you're all ready.”
Asura nodded, “On our way.” The two walked towards the roof. Scalios was the group leader, but she was happy to see that B4hamutt was in the group. Andremedia was joining as well, and then two others she didn't know personally, but she recognized them as members of the council who o
nce ran their own powerful guilds. Skyth a master leviathan and Odexin a master holy beast.
Once she and 5t4r arrived the group of seven took off from the roof and headed south towards the dragon lands. “Okay, let's get all the information out,” Scalios said. “I know some of you haven't done a prison break, so I'll explain how these work. There are two ways to break people out of prisons. The first is finding and eliminating the NPC warden. That is the harder way, but it releases all the prisoners from their cells and gives them access to all their items. The second, but easier, way is to eliminate the NPC guards protecting the cell itself. This releases that specific cell, but it leaves us in danger since we can still, potentially, be captured. We'll be going after the warden for this one. Quite a few players have been captured and we're going to get all who are in this prison out at once. The good news is once the warden has been eliminated, even if we're killed we can't be captured until after we leave the territory. Any questions?”
The group remained silent and he continued. “Good. According to Star's sources the prison is located south of where Camelot used to be, carved into the mountains around there. It'll be fairly hot but, fortunately, we've sent some people to investigate and found an opening we can access through an underwater river. We should be able to sneak in from there and get inside. We'll go in together as one unit, not split up this time. Any questions?” Once again silence answered him and the small group continued on.
The dragon lands were filled with towering mountains and powerful volcanos, some of which were spewing out smoke, but for the most part seemed almost empty. From the distance they could only occasionally catch sight of players far below, slaughtering some of the large reptilian creatures that filled the zones.
Asura glanced around and noticed a few of the others had apparently gotten bored as they tapped their fingers through the air. She moved over towards B4hamutt and looked over to him. “So, any thoughts?”
He merely shrugged.
“Thanks for helping me with everything. I know there are others in here, but I know the main reason you came is because I asked,” she said with a sheepish smile.
He nodded, but continued on.
“Are you mad at me?” He shook his head and she let out a sigh. “Okay? Any idea on where the warden will be?” Once again he shrugged in response and she let out annoyed growl. “Okay then...”
The group came to a large range of low altitude mountains covered in lush trees surrounding a crisp clear lake. She stared at it with wide eyes. “Oh... wow... I've never even seen this place before. Is this new?”
“No,” Scalios said as they descended down near the river. “It's deceptive though. Asura, don't!” But it was to late. She landed by the edge of the water and put her feet in right as he uttered his warning. She let out a loud shriek and jumped away, staring at the water in disbelief before she yanked off her boots and fanned her feet with her hands.
“It's boiling! How... why... but it's so clear, and it's... what? It doesn't look anything like... how?” she asked before casting an icy spell on her feet to cool them.
“Boil point lake. Deep under the water are vents and fissures connected to underground magma. The entire thing is boiling beyond belief, only dragons can endure it.”
“But it's not bubbling or anything? No steam, nothing?”
Scalios shrugged. “Rumor has it that the lake is enchanted and used as a trap. Me? I think the entire area was supposed to look nice for dragons, kind of a get away hot springs area, and they didn't want to make it look bad by making the water churning and bubbling. We won't be going in through here though and, fortunately, the rivers that feed into this are much cooler. Come on.”
The group began slogging their way through the thick foliage, bushes, trees and vines trying to impede their movements. They followed a river that came from the north and emptied into the lake.
Asura, tentatively, reached out with her foot to tap the water and, to her relief, found it was far cooler. With a happy sigh she jumped a few feet forward into the water. With a startled shriek she found herself floundering, neck deep, and trying to get back to shore. “What, hack cough, is with this place? It tries to drown me or boil me!” She yanked herself out and gave the water an annoyed glare.
Scalios snickered as he went through his class change into a leviathan. “Sorry, I guess I should have warned you. Those first few steps are a doozy,” he said with a wide grin plastered on his face before diving in and splashing her.
“Hey! No-” Her words were drowned out as the others jumped in a moment later, sending more water up and drenching her. She glowered angrily before switching to the leviathan as well. “You all suck.”
“Aw, come on. We were jus--” Scalios started with a chuckle.
“SUCK!” she reiterated before jumping in after them. Together, the leviathans swam through the water, moving around fish and against the current rapidly as their smooth scales easily resisted the river's force. They were soon in the darkness where the river flowed out from underwater caverns. The tunnels went off in multiple directions but, fortunately, with Scalios there he slowly led them through the underwater maze. It seemed like they would be there forever before the group surfaced in a large chamber.
The entire open cavern glowed a ghostly blue, with small glowing crystals lined up along the walls and throughout the damp rocky area. The water they were in was surrounded on all sides by a large incline of moss covered rocks. The group reached out and began the slow task of climbing out of the water. Once she was out, Asura formed her wings again and flew up towards the top of the incline.
She landed and looked around, frowning. Nearby she could see the entrance to a large complex built into the mountain itself, judging by the door size it was a back entrance. She tossed down some ropes and scanned for anyone who might notice them. “I don't see anyone. Shouldn't they have some guards?”
“They probably aren't suspecting anyone to come here,” 5t4r said before he landed besides her and helped by sending out a rope as well. “After all, we already took out the dragon city so they probably don't think anyone will find this place.”
“Yeah, but I don't even see NPC guards. You'd think they'd have a few.”
“They probably didn't want to distribute anyone beyond the bare minimum,” Scalios said before climbing up and drawing his weapon. “No reason to look a gift horse in the mouth, let's go.”
“Gotcha,” Asura said before they changed to their preferred classes and slowly made their way towards the door. She looked around a few times before stabbing her blade into the lock and easily slicing it apart. The door swung open easily.
Silence.
Cautiously the group advanced through the compound. The walls were carved from the stone with wooden tables and counters set up in the room they entered from, seemingly the cafeteria. The wood looked clean and, while old, still strong and firm. The hall and rooms had metal torch bearers sticking out every few feet with fresh torches inside, keeping the place well lit as they slowly traveled. The floors were un-carpeted, but sanded completely smooth under their feet. An interesting sight was how it seemed to have been completely formed from the rocks around it, as in some places the walls went from normal rock to a few feet of crystal and then stone again while remaining perfectly smooth. The halls were barren aside from the torches, not even guards on patrol or sentry duty.
“It's so quiet...” Asura mumbled before peeking through a doorway into a dark room, the torch mounts empty and the room completely barren of even basic furniture. “Are you sure they still used this? Star?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm gonna see if I can get a hold of my friend. Maybe they moved or something...” he said before flicking his hands through the air a few times and moving his lips to speak, though no words could be heard. Warily they continued to advance. She glanced over to Scalios and B4hamutt. The two were clenching their weapons tightly, obviously quite tense. She took a deep breath as she moved up besides the leviathan.
; “Is everything okay?” she whispered before they came to a ladder built into the wall, as the prison lacked stairs. He let the others go down first before speaking.
“Just nervous. You never know, right? Just on guard in case anything happens.” He kept looking down, not actually looking her in the eyes.
“Scales? What's wrong? You and Mutt have been acting strange for a while now, since we started this. What aren't you telling me?”
He let out a sigh and looked up at her. “Fine. I guess it's only right I tell you. There's going to be an attack going on at Yggdrasil while we're doing this. A helpful distraction, but a big one.”
“What? Why? Do the others know?”
He shook his head. “Only Mutt does. We've been working to keep it hush hush but, once we get further in and eliminate the warden we're going to gather as many as we can, quite a few since a lot of guilds have prepared 'training sessions' for today, and launch our biggest attack yet.”
She stopped then. “So by a helpful distraction... you mean us. Not them.”
“Yes. When the prison falls they'll rush to try and stop us. While they're doing that, the attack will be launched.”
“We should tell the others. They have a right to know if we're being used for that,” she said softly before glancing down the ladder.
“If you want. It's too late to do anything about it though, unless they want to run away,” he said before she headed down the hole.
“What took you two so long?” Andremedia asked when the two climbed down.
Asura glanced at B4hamutt and Scalios before turning back to the fae. “I have something to tell all of you,” she said before telling them the plan. When she finished up she let out a sigh and awaited the inevitable back lash.
“That's it?” Skyth asked with a cocked eye.
“Well... yeah. I though you might be mad, or--”
“Why would we care? No, actually I do. I'm mad you didn't tell us,” she said with a glare aimed at B4hamutt. “Also, that I won't be there to see the city fall. But it's not like we weren't expecting any resistance, or risks, with this mission. I'm not going to be mad that we might win another foot hold in the war thanks to it.”
Landasy Reality: Angel's Escape Page 25