The Siege

by Jakob Tanner

  The guards turned and looked at us suspiciously, but then continued marching forward.

  Clay: Be ready to move when the time comes.

  No one responded in party chat, but everyone nodded, squirming from their cuffed wrists behind their backs.

  We eventually turned a corner and the dark tunnel we’d been travelling through opened up to a massively large cavern with a bright white subterranean city at its center.

  As we walked along the rocky ridge down towards the underground civilization, a message popped up in my HUD.

  You have discovered Mortem + 100 EXP!

  The city at the bottom of the ridge was deathly quiet. No one was out on the streets. We passed by crumbling homes. Furtive eyes blinked out from the windows.

  I knew the Rorn hated the Aeri, but more in a knock-your-shoulder-in-the-streets kind of way, than a hide-in-your-home sort of way. Maybe I had it wrong.

  We turned another corner and all the guards tensed, lifting up their weapons. Down the street were a group of ten or so serpra warriors. The snake creatures were chasing after a lone Rorn civilian. He screamed, tears pouring out his eyes.

  “Help me,” he cried.

  The Rorn guards turned to us. “Stay right here.”

  The six warriors rushed to meet the gang of serpra head on.

  “Escape time?” asked Serena.

  I squirmed and took in our surroundings.

  The Rorn squad charged in a triangle formation. The serpra spread out in the streets, going for cover. Their rangers nocked their bows and shot off a barrage of sharpened projectiles. The storm of arrows flew through the air and shadowed over the mountain warriors. The projectiles crashed into them, crinkling ineffectively against their hard iron armor. A few lucky shots made it through the cracks and crevices of the warrior’s heavy armor. None of the soldiers cried out. They kept moving forward towards their enemy. The Rorn made impact with the serpra warriors. They viciously mauled the serpra spearmen with their axes and swords. The Rorn overpowered the melee fighters, even as they took more arrow attacks in their arms and fireball spells to the head.

  “Are we going to bounce, Clay?” said Shade, looking back and forth between the battle and me. “We couldn’t ask for a more perfect distraction?”

  Right as the Rorn warriors were about to deal the death blow to a serpra spearman, a bright light flew across the battlefield and shot the serpra’s HP above 50%. The serpra healers had emerged. The Rorn kept pummeling the spearman, but it was a turning point and the Rorn knew it. With healers mixed in, strong as the Rorn were, they’d have a hard time killing anything, and the harder it took to kill something, the longer they were taking arrow hits in the back and letting the enemy fireballs heat their armor to the point of frying their insides.

  “They’re not going to win this fight,” I said. “We got to do something.”

  “Yeah, escape,” said Shade.

  “Screw that,” I said. “We’re going to help them.”

  “Uhh, do I need to remind you we’re handcuffed?” said Will.

  I shook my head at both of them and kicked my feet off the ground and ran towards the battle.

  “Um, hey,” I said to the Rorn guard leader, locked in a sword fight with a vicious serpra.

  “I thought I told you to stay put,” said the Rorn fighter, gritting his teeth.

  “You did, but I’m slightly concerned you’re going to die and I’m never going to get these handcuffs off my wrist, so I thought we’d come to a reasonable arrangement: you let us go—temporarily of course—and we help you beat these serpra. How does that sound?”

  The Rorn’s face reddened and he kicked the serpra in its chest and sent it back a couple of steps. “That’s the most outrageous bloody thing I’ve ever heard,” shouted the Rorn. “But it’s our only shot. Turn around.”

  I turned my back to him and he unlocked the handcuffs.

  “Here’s the key,” he said. “Now go free your friends and help us out already.”

  I electric blinked back to my party.

  “No time to explain,” I said, uncuffing Serena. “But we came to an arrangement. They free us temporarily and we help save their lives.”

  “You only got “temporary freedom” for saving their lives?” said Shade, aghast. “What kind of haggling is that?”

  “It’s called haggling under life-or-death pressure, so get off me,” I said, uncuffing him next. “Now go sneak around those buildings and mess up the serpra spellcasters.”

  Shade hurried off. Serena glanced at me for directions, but knew what to do. I gave her the nod and she ran toward the melee serpra fighters. After I uncuffed Jackson, he hurried in to do the same.

  I uncuffed Will and Kari last.

  “Alright support squad,” I said. “Let’s run in and go help our pals and—um—well, prison-keepers turned, friends?”

  Will snickered and ran ahead. “We can figure that out later bro. Let’s go kick some ass!”

  We charged into the battlefield.

  Kari threw out protective buffs to Serena and the others. Will turned all the spilt blood on the ground of the battlefield in bright AoE flames. The serpra screamed. Their eyes shriveled. They were no longer focused on the battle.

  “What the heck did you do to them, Will?”

  “Ah, it’s a pretty rare debuff. Only 3% chance it ever lands from my spell. It’s called Dread. It makes the user go temporarily insane. It doesn’t always work in our favor though. Look.”

  The serpra warrior who’d fallen back from the fight was now rushing in with even greater bloodlust.

  “Aren’t you fighting on our side?” shouted one of the Rorn warriors, now locked in a battle with the crazed serpra.

  I threw my hands out and created an icy plane behind the battlefield. Then I took control of the wind and shot air blast onto the serpra warriors, sending them back a few meters. They slid onto the ice and lost control of themselves, slithering and slipping on the plate of ice. Cripple and chill debuffs flickered beneath their status bars.

  “Take care of them while they’re down,” I shouted.

  “Where you off to?” replied Serena.

  “Gotta take out those healers!”

  I electric blinked to the roof above where the three spellcasters were planted. I started an epic spell combo with earthquake, crumbling the ground at their feet. I followed that up with a blazing fireball, heating up the jagged ground. Then for my final move, I unleashed a new druid ability. Star storm. I lifted my arm to the sky and bright lunar orbs flew from above the ground and crashed into a large AoE circle, surrounding the spellcasters.

  Crippled and on fire they were nearly dead. I conjured my ice sword into my hand and electric blinked to the floor. I stabbed the serpra in the chest, killing it. The spellcasters weren’t used to a fight this close and personal. I spun around and crushed the other spellcaster with my sword. They had no weaponry to block my attacks with. They were done for. With the stack of debuffs they were unable to stop me. It was over within a minute. The experience points rushed through my HUD.

  Congratulations! Your primary class (Druid) has leveled up (Level 29). You have gained (1) class skill point for your primary class.

  The group had taken out the rest with ease.

  “Well done everybody,” I said, returning to the center of the street.

  “I can’t believe those snake people are this deep in the mountain,” said Kari.

  Before I had a chance to reply, the Rorn squadron was pointing all of their weapons back at us.

  “Help them out you said,” muttered Shade. “It’ll be great you said.”

  24

  “Shut up kitty cat,” said one of the Rorn guards.

  “Hold on now,” I said. “Are you really going to point those weapons at us?”

  “Are you not going to stay true to your word,” said the Rorn, looking me in the eye. “We agreed for you to be temporarily uncuffed. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear it was all Aeri trickery thoug
h”

  Oof. The man was attacking my elf people.

  I lifted my arms in front of him. “Hey man, if you want to cuff us, go for it. I will let you cuff us voluntarily—“

  “Clay, what are you doing,” said Serena.

  “But why don’t you tell us where you want to go and we’ll go there willingly all the same. Cuffed or not cuffed.”

  The Rorn scratched his nose. “We were taking you to King Galmund. If you promise to come willingly, we will escort you there. King Galmund will determine your fate, which, may still be death for all of you.”

  I smiled and looked back at the party. That was some level 3 bartering right there, if I didn’t say so myself. They all rolled their eyes.

  “Lead the way,” I said.

  The Rorn continued to march around us like we were prisoners, but it was nice to have our arms free.

  Serena: Do we take this opportunity to escape?

  Will: They haven’t proven to be very trustworthy or kind these Rorn. Why should we continue dealing with them amicably.

  Clay: Look around, you guys. Something’s gone wrong for the Rorn in these mountains. Not these jerk head guards, but the normal citizens. They’re in wartime siege mode. We can help them and—who knows—in turn they’ll help us.

  Will: What, like, when we helped them a second ago and they returned the favor by pointing their blades at our necks?

  It was an uneasy truth, but I was sticking by my convictions. The Rorn here needed our help and I was prepared to give it, even if they only begrudgingly accepted it.

  The warriors led us through the quiet depopulated city.

  I turned to the warrior beside me. “Aren’t you guys supposed to be super high-tech? Where are all your gadgets?”

  The Rorn’s face turned sullen. “We overspent our crystal mana supply pursuing new inventions. We were so focused on our ideals, thinking we were doing good for all of us, we didn’t realize the mistakes we were making. We ran out of crystal mana and then our defenses fell and the imprisoned Serpra Overlord was able to send waves of minions, further destroying our supply lines.”

  The Rorn sighed with aggravation. I didn’t ask him any more questions.

  We arrived at a grand marble staircase leading up to a large palace.

  “Let me guess: the king’s place,” said Shade.

  “Do not be so disrespectful in front of Galmund,” said the Rorn and continued heading up the steps. We followed behind.

  At the top of the steps was another smaller staircase and then finally a large entranceway with two Rorn guards. Our Rorn captors nodded their heads to the guards as they passed. We passed through a shadowy chamber until we entered a large hall, at the end of which sat an Old Rorn, whose large head was slumped, bored, in his equally large pudgy hand. He had a gray beard, faded blue eyes, and a big bulbous nose. His face was filled with wrinkles, deep crevices into his skin, suggesting he was far older than any feasibly believable number. I didn’t even want to guess.

  So this was King Galmund.

  “Ah yes,” sighed the king. “The newest intruders to our kingdom. What brings you here—cat-man, ugly Aeri, fox-girl, a couple of Haeren, and a traitorous Rorn?”

  “Wow, you sure know how to make friends,” said Shade.

  We all turned to him in shock. A blade was lifted to his chin.

  “Speak out of turn again and I’ll slit your throat,” hissed the Rorn guard, holding the dagger at Shade’s neck.

  “Why are you passing through our mountain?” said the king. Shade’s life or death was nothing but a trifle to him. Nothing to give him pause about.

  The party turned to me.

  “We’re seeking passage to Iron Citadel,” I said.

  The room went silent and I was worried I’d made a major Rorn social faux-pas and was seconds away from getting decapitated.

  King Galmund raised his eyebrows. He readjusted himself in his seat. He chuckled. The rest of the guards, in sickening sycophantic fashion, followed suit.

  “Iron Citadel!?” laughed the king. “What a waste? The place is haunted. You’ll never take control of it.”

  “Well, it’s our plan,” I said. “We helped your guards earlier would you mind doing us a favor in turn and showing us the way to exit the mountains and reach the citadel?”

  The king’s eyes widened at the request. “My my, aren’t you bold? But alas, I won’t be able to grant such a request as you’ve trespassed on our land and the punishment for such action is eternal imprisonment. So it was lovely to chat with you ugly Aeri, but banish them to the cells!”

  The guards rushed towards us, weapons raised.

  “WAIT,” I yelled. “Maybe we can make a deal?”

  The king raised his arms and told the guards to stop. “A deal!? You make me laugh ugly Aeri. I would never agree to a deal with a bunch of overground dwellers like yourselves.”

  I paused. There was still one chance. This was it. The do or die negotiation.

  “The city outside is far from vibrant. Your citizens are scared. Serpra haunt the streets. We can remove the problem for you. In return, you’ll grant us safe passage through the mountain.”

  “You don’t know what it is you’re suggesting, little ugly Aeri boy,” said the king. “Killing the serpra who haunt our streets won’t do anything. The only way to get rid of them is to destroy the Serpra Overlord who spawns them; and I don’t believe you’re up for such a task. Are you?”

  You increased your bartering skills by 0.3

  New Quest Alert: The Serpra Overlord in the Storm Mountains!

  The powerful Serpra Overlord was imprisoned by the Rorn for centuries. However, since the loss of the Rorn’s crystal mana supply routes, the gates blocking the monster have been powered down and allowed the Serpra Overlord to send its spawned minions into the mountain to terrorize the Rorn. Will you put a stop to the monster’s havoc once and for all?

  Quest Type: Rare

  Quest Difficulty: Super Hard

  Reward: 80,000 EXP

  Accept: Yes/No ?

  I clicked accept. To decline it would be to sentence us to eternal imprisonment. All of Illyria would then be at the hands of Konrad Takeshimi and the evil Arethkarian high council.

  “We’ll do it,” I said. “It’s as good as done.”

  The king grinned mischievously. “You really don’t know what you’ve agreed to, do you? You’ve only postponed death and torture temporarily. No one who has gone to fight the Serpra Overlord has ever returned.”

  25

  A Rorn guard led us to a massive tunnel far out from the crumbling city. He planted his spear in the dirt and stood tall at the entrance. “The Serpra Overlord rests at the end of this tunnel here. I’ll stand guard until tomorrow.”

  “You mean, you’ll wait for when we come back?” I said.

  “Erm, I can’t wait forever.”

  “His confidence is inspiring,” said Serena, brushing past the guard into the tunnel. “Shall we?”

  The tunnel quickly grew dark the deeper we went. I conjured a fireball in my palm and led the way through the passage. The ground became muddy and large puddles dotted the ground. The solid ground disappeared and a shallow pool of water rested on either end of the passage for as far as my fireball would let me see. The water kept rising as we went until it was up to our waist.

  “Anyone else getting a bad feeling about this,” said Shade. “Why are we doing this again? Why didn’t we steal a map of Galmund’s royal cartographer and figure out a way through these blasted mountains. Sounds a lot easier than going to fight this Serpra Overlord thing. Yeesh.”

  “Yeah and then have the Rorn of the Storm Mountains AND Konrad Takeshimi’s army chasing after us. I’m trying to keep our list of enemies lower.”

  “Alriiiiiight,” said Shade, his voice echoing across the murky tunnel.

  We continued down the damp passageway. I kept my arms above the water, lighting the way with my fireball. The tunnel widened and the water got shallower. We
cautiously made our way deeper into the passage. Out of the darkness was a splash—two serpra spearman, flew right at us with tridents.

  Everyone got ready to fight them. I planted my palm on the tip of the water casting skull shock. The lightning rippled through the currents, draining the HP out of the serpra. As they were occupied in the electric seizures of my lightning spell, Serena sliced her blade cutting off their heads in one swoop.

  +420 EXP!

  +420 EXP!

  “We must be getting closer,” I said. “The Serpra Overlord cave is the spawning point for these creatures.”

  The passage opened up even wider, revealing a large grotto with a deep pond of water. Patches of sand dunes poked out of the cove. Bright green fish glowed from beneath the surface of the water, lighting up the whole cave.

  We went to the first sand dune and travelled to the next. Where was the Serpra Overlord?

  “Maybe he left,” suggested Kari. “Has travelled to some other part of the mountains?”

  “No,” whispered Will. “Look.”

  The water ahead of us grew darker. It was shrouded in shadow. The bright green fish didn’t swim any closer. They were afraid to go further. Two large bright yellow eyes, each one the size of my own head, blinked out from the darkness.

  The creature slithered out of the shadows, revealing itself. It was an oversized serpent. Thick as a cross-continental truck and as tall as—well, I couldn’t tell how tall it was, as it remained curled, but it lifted its head so it towered at least two stories above us. Its shadow loomed over us in the forbidden cove. The creature hissed.

  “Does it really want to scare us away?” said Shade. “I mean, I don’t know how often it gets to eat a meal other than green glow fish. I’d figure it would want to lure us in, at least.”