by Jakob Tanner
“Clay—are you okay?” yelled Serena, from halfway up the set of cliffs.
I got myself to my feet. I hated jumping puzzles. Bats swirled at the top of the cavern’s ceiling. They’d start attacking us the closer we got to them and the exit. I turned to the tunnel where we’d come from. Footsteps and angry war cries emanated from the shadows.
Alright, new plan.
I stretched out my arms, palms wide. Silver glowed in front of me, taking the shape of a large bird.
It’s cold, dark, and smelly in here. I don’t like it. Why did you summon me?
Gryph, we’re in a jam and I need your personal taxi service.
The gryphon sighed. If I must.
I jumped on the back of the legendary bird. I held his feathers and he soared into the air. We flew past the party members towards the ceiling of the chamber.
“What are you doing, Clay?” shouted Serena.
“Just watch.”
We flew towards the shadowy darkness of where the cave bats were dwelling. I conjured a fireball in my arms and whipped it at a cluster of sleeping bats, hanging upside down. One shot from the fireball completely ruffled them, shooting them in all directions. They swarmed towards Gryph and me. Through the mass of fluttering wings was one particularly extra giant bat. Above its status bar was the term: [Veteran Cave Bat Queen]. I whipped a fireball specifically at it. Its giant eyes glared at me and it flew after with reckless abandon.
We soared back to the bottom of the chamber, kiting the bat swarm behind us. The Arethkarian troops were swarming into the chamber from below. They fired arrows at us. Mostly missing and hitting the incoming bats, drawing their aggro.
“That’s right bitches,” I said. “Time to fight our cave bat army.”
They’re very much not on our side, Clay.
Doesn’t matter.
We flew close to the bottom, the bats zooming behind us, before we curved back up around towards the party. The bats were still chasing after us but many had gotten into fights with the soldiers below.
“Hop on,” I yelled as we approached the party standing on a lone rocky platform. Everyone jumped onto Gryph’s large wings and back.
“Hold tight!”
We soared towards the bright light exit and soon as we hit it a message appeared in my HUD.
Do you wish to exit the Storm Mountains (Dungeon)? Y/N?
Oh heck yeah I did. Without a doubt.
31
Whiteness everywhere. Cold nothingness. I blinked and felt frost ripple up my fingers. I shook my head and tufts of snow fell off my hair and eyes. I was on my knees, covered in a blanket of snow. I stood up and large puffs of white coldness slid off my person.
The entrance to the mountain dungeon loomed behind us, a dark mouth of shadow, ready to swallow whoever dared to enter. Gryph’s swift exit from the dungeon ended with him crashing into a tree and sending us all sprawling into the snow.
I request immediate unsummoning, said the bird.
I granted his request and then took in our surroundings. We were somewhere near the top, between the different mountain ranges, in a snowy valley full of tall pine trees and mountain goats. In the distance were large gorilla-like monsters with, [Ice Troll], hovering above their heads. They dragged large clubs around. Note to self: try and avoid those freaky guys.
Serena brushed snow off her shoulder. “Is everybody here?”
We did a roll call. Jackson was rubbing his hands to keep warm. He barely wore any armor or thick clothes. It must have been freezing for him out here, so high up in the mountains. Will stood behind looking at the cave entrance, waiting to fight any Arethkarian soldiers who came out. Kari was off to the side with a stick, dragging it back and forth in the snow.
“Anyone see Shade?” asked the fox-girl.
Further along, the snowy ground shook until Shade’s head burst out of the snow. He spit out a bunch of white puffs.
“Why did I land in the most uncomfortable spot?”
“Bad luck I guess,” I shrugged.
“You know that can’t be true,” said Shade.
I walked over to him in the snow and pulled him out.
Shade wiped snow off his trousers and then pointed down the cliff face. “Alright then gang. Onward?”
Will sighed, staring at the opening to the Storm Mountains. “I’m concerned about the Arethkarian regiment behind us.”
“No sweat,” said Shade, tossing his hands in the air. “The bats will eat them alive.”
“I don’t think so,” said Will. “They’ll cause a long distraction, sure, but there were a lot of soldiers. They’ll get through the bats eventually. Then they’ll be right behind us again.”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
“Will’s right,” I said. “So what do we do? Can we seal the entrance?”
“Given the portal dimension to the dungeon, I’m not entirely sure if sealing the entrance will be enough to stop someone going through, but I think it’s worth a shot.”
“Agreed,” I said. “Everybody get away from the entrance.”
I stretched out my arms and unleashed a massive earthquake spell. The mountain shook and rocks rolled down the passage, stacking up on top of each other blocking the entrance to the dungeon.
“Huzzah,” I said.
“Yeah we get it,” said Serena, giving me a tickle in the ribs. “You’re magical. Give it a rest nerd.” She gave me a kiss on the cheek.
“Um, guys,” said Shade. “I think we have another problem.” He nodded his head towards Jackson.
Jackson’s lips were quivering, his shoulder’s shivering, his teeth chattering. His skin had a light blue hue to it from the cold. A debuff icon flickered beneath his status bars.
Frost (Debuff): Brr. It’s cold! Should’ve worn more layers, numb nuts. -20 agility. -15 HP per minute. (Duration: Until Properly Warmed).
“Oh man that doesn’t look good,” said Kari.
I reviewed my status cure spell and frost was not one of the status debuffs I had the ability to cure.
Serena rubbed her arms. “You know, I’m getting cold too. Do you think we’re all going to get hit by this debuff eventually?”
“Hold on,” said Kari. She stared intently in front of us, reviewing her HUD. She then lifted up her hands and cast a spell on Jackson. The debuff flickered away and a small little bonfire symbol replaced it. Jackson’s body returned to normal. He looked as warm as a summer’s day.
“Kari—what did you do?” said the brawler, amazed.
“It’s a spell I’d purposefully never unlocked,” explained Kari. “I never saw the purpose of it. It’s called Internal Hearth. It keeps one’s body temperature high, despite external conditions.”
The fox-girl then went onto cast the spell on all of us.
“Great,” said Shade, looking on at the vicious mountain goats and trolls up ahead. “At least we can rule out freezing to death.”
“You’re welcome,” said Kari.
With everyone’s body temperature warm, it was time to roll out.
The sky above the mountaintop was gray. The wind howled around us, pushing against our face like prickly little knives. Even with Kari’s internal hearth spell, the wind still had a bite to it. Snow blew into our eyes, making it difficult to see. In the distance was the silhouette of a large structure. A castle. Iron Citadel.
We travelled on foot for another hour as the magnificent fortress came into greater view. Thick stone walls loomed down on us. The structure rested high above the valley, giving it a height advantage. Storm clouds passed around its tallest tower. The ancient Rorn fortress stood in front of us. The castle we’d been searching for. The place that would help us win the war against Arethkar. The war to save Arcane Kingdom Online.
“Well would you look at that,” said Shade, his tail wagging behind him.
“The place looks pretty empty,” said Serena.
We approached the portcullis. Standing in front of the closed gate, creaking gears turned in th
e distance. The gate raised itself.
“This is creepy,” said Kari. “How did it do that?”
“I don’t know,” I said.
I walked through the gate into Iron Citadel. We were in an empty abandoned bailey. Snow blanketed barrels and wagons. How long had this place been unoccupied?
Weird shrieks howled around us.
“What was that?”
Everybody shrugged.
“The wind, I guess?” said Shade.
The bailey was only the opening square to this massive labyrinthine fortress. The large keep tower at the back, must have been where the control center was. It was where we’d have to go to officially conquer this place. I stepped in that direction when I noticed footprints in the snow. They formed and made a path but there was no body attached to these footprints.
“Uh oh guys,” I said. “I don’t think we’re the only one’s here.”
I conjured a fireball in my hand and whipped it at the footprint. The fireball flew across the air until it burst into a bright explosion midair. Flickering behind it was a specter of a Rorn composed of blue wispy energy.
The formerly invisible person turned around, eyeing me angrily. Then appearing all across the bailey were more wispy blue spirit warriors. All Rorn. Some holding melee weapons. Others raising nocked bows. A few more had arms at the ready to cast devastating spells. The blue energy composing these ancient spirits caught every detail of them, from their former armor to the wisps of their beard to their angled eyebrows to their hostile faces.
King Galmund’s words rushed back to me: Iron Citadel was haunted.
The castle wasn’t empty.
It was filled with ghosts.
32
We were surrounded. I counted more than a dozen Rorn ghost spirits.
Serena sprinted into the middle of the bailey. She beat her chest and shouted, “Protect Thy Allies.” The ghosts all pivoted in her direction.
“Come get some,” she said.
The ghosts charged her. Serena spun on her foot and initiated blade tornado. The ghosts kept coming towards her, no hesitation. When the spinning blade hit their flesh, the steel swiped through their ethereal bodies. Serena’s twirl slowed down and she faced the surrounding attackers, not a single one of them had taken any damage.
“Uh oh,” said Serena. “Looks like they’re immune to physical attacks. Spellcasters back me up!”
I threw out my hand to cast flame wall, but the spell didn’t trigger. In fact, I’d lost control of my body. My feet spun around and I ran to the entrance.
The rest of the party was doing the same thing.
“What the hell are you doing?” shouted Serena.
“Ms. Serena I’m sorry I don’t know,” said Shade.
“I’ll be back in one second, Serena,” shouted Kari, running away from the battle.
I checked my HUD and found the answer to our question.
Fear (Debuff): Looks like you’ve been frightened. Scaredy-cats run away (Duration: 30 seconds).
“The damn ghosts are making us scared,” I said.
“So?” said Serena backing away from the approaching spirits. “That hasn’t stopped me from fighting them. When did you guys all become such cowards?”
“Since we got hit with the literal fear debuff,” I said.
“Annoying,” said Serena. “Can you get over it and come back in please?”
The duration on the debuff clocked out, but we were now outside the Iron Citadel’s walls once again.
“What’s gonna stop us from getting hit by the debuff again once we step back in there?” asked Kari.
“You guys wait out here,” I said. “I have an idea. Shade—if you can sneak in there with stealth, you’ll be able to follow my lead.”
Shade nodded his head and crept along the walls, clinging to the shadows and re-entering the fortress.
A clear night sky hung above us. I triggered moonskin and hurried back into the Iron Citadel. Serena was zigzagging across the bailey, kiting a train of hostile ghosts after her. One of the ghosts looked in my direction. Did it see me? The spirit paid me no heed, chasing after Serena. I sighed in relief.
I headed to the center of the bailey. I sent a message in party chat in my HUD.
Clay: Hey guys, I’m gonna try something. You’ll know it when it happens. Take it as your signal to move in.
I placed my hands in front of me and triggered the ability, solar bomb. A bright warm light emanated out of my hands. It got larger and larger until it surrounded my whole person. The brightness got so intense I winced and then shut my eyes entirely. It was like I’d set a flash bomb off in the battlefield. I opened my eyes again and the brightness had taken over the whole bailey, like a giant spotlight had been shined onto the area. The ghosts had all taken a serious hit to their HP from the solar bomb. Plus, the brightness of the blast was counteracting the fear debuff.
I stretched out my arms and cast flame wall near Serena.
“Try blade tornado again!”
Serena first drew their aggro with another “Protect Thy Allies” shout and once they were all coming for her, she shifted into blade tornado. Her spinning blade caught the fire of my flame wall, imbuing her attack with a new extra magical layer. The ghosts came at her with reckless abandon. The flaming blade sliced through the ethereal ghost bodies, but the flames left a mark, draining their HP.
I held out my hand and conjured my ice sword into my grip. I ran into the battlefield. First I threw out a lightning cage spell, paralyzing a group of ghosts. Then I swung my ice blade, dealing magical damage to the ancient Rorn spirits.
Jackson jumped right into the fray with his two fists flaming with dragon magic. He punched one ghost hard enough, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had broken the space-time barrier and retroactively reshaped the man’s jaw.
At first, Will looked confused and lost during the battle. Many of his abilities were useless against the ghosts. It was a bad match up for him. Life drain was useless against lifeless ghosts and his AoE spell blood flame was ineffective when the ghosts didn’t drop any blood. He stuck with his basic warlock projectile magic: a ball of flaming red energy. He whipped the flaming spheres into the ghost Rorns’ heads. He threw one with such ferocity, it smashed into one ghost Rorn’s stomach and sent him stumbling backwards into a final death blow by Serena’s fiery blade.
Kari threw out a holy spell, draining one ghost of its remaining HP. Upon hitting 0 health, the ghost disintegrated into a light blue dust, blown away by the wind and mixed in with the snowy ground.
We were gaining the advantage on the battlefield, but the brightness of the solar bomb was diminishing.
A larger ghost rode in from the side entrance. It was a ghost Rorn spirit riding a vicious angry looking mane, while holding up a spinning blackjack above his head.
The Rorn spirit came at us, only to fall over. Critical hits stacked and the creature died before even getting to us. Shade appeared behind the fallen ghost with his two kunai, covered in ninja shadow magic.
“You told me to show up when the time was right,” grinned Shade.
More ghosts streamed in from the top layer of the bailey.
“There’s too many of them,” said Serena. “Clay—you need to cast solar bomb again before the fear debuff takes over!”
“Forget that,” I said. “We don’t need to defeat all of these ghosts. If we can get to the control center and take over Iron Citadel, then it’s ours, and these ghosts will disappear. Onward!”
I left the battle and headed through the bailey into another open courtyard of the fortress. My party members ran behind me. The wind howled around us. The ghosts shrieked. We went through a second gate leading to a long staircase with a tower at the end. This was it. We were almost there.
Shade ran over and operated a winch, pulling down the gate.
“Is that really going to stop the ghosts?” asked Serena. “They can move through walls.”
Shade stopped moving the gate. “Crap—
you’re right. Run!”
We headed up the stairs towards the control center. Lightning crackled from the gray clouds above. A figure emerged. Taller than all of us. It was a hulking Rorn spirit. He was different from the others. He was less ethereal than the others. His skin was material with a murky green hue of a raised undead. His eyes glowed bright blue, leaking out magic. It was the same ethereal substance that composed the normal ghosts below. The bright glowing blue ran across this large Rorn’s body, glowing in his bracers and in his legs and boots. He had brown hair adorned with a complicated hair cut. He had a Mohawk running across his forehead, but a long strand of hair growing at the back of his head, tied into a ponytail. He had an intense beard tied into three hanging knots.
His status bar appeared in my HUD:
Renful
Level 45
HP: 5125
MP: 150
“Here’s the thing I don’t like about this whole situation,” said Shade. “Rorn are always pissed off. It’s no surprise an undead ghost Rorn who’s been ruminating on all their grudges for centuries is going to be mega pissed off.”
“Remember,” said Jackson. “As Clay said, we don’t need to even beat this guy, so long as we can keep him distracted as someone conquers the control center.”
“Erm,” said Serena. “I don’t know if it’s going to be that easy.”
Serena pointed to the Rorn’s waist. A set of keys hung on them.
“I think we’re going to have to beat this guy to get into the control center,” Serena said.
“Get ready then,” I said. “This guy stands between us and the throne room.”
The ghosts were passing through the walls and gate behind us.
“Charge!”
Serena ran ahead with Jackson and Shade on either side of her.