He wasn't able to twist the spell that far, it didn't reach the top of the wall, so he tried something else.
Cast Accelerated plant growth, he thought, focusing on the wall of thorns and trying to get it to stretch farther up.
He hadn't even been sure that the combination would work, fearing that accelerating the growth of the wall of thorns would simply push it past its duration, but now the wall of thorns had stretched up, the top section curling over the invisible wall.
“Alright, we can climb this to get over there,” he called.
Tiana came racing forward, Alyx right behind her. Eddie glanced at Charles and saw why. The paladin was torn and bleeding, although still on his feet. Campbell had moved in on the Champion as well and wasn't even close to holding his own. He was mainly tanking, trying to keep the Champion from joining the king. The only time Eddie saw him lash out with a strike was when the Champion tried to go around Campbell to get to the other fight. That drew the Champion back to Campbell who went back to trying to turtle.
Tiana and Alyx were up the tangled thorn vines quickly, one on either side. Tamshir came up the middle and immediately cast some sort of spell which caused Charles to flash a grayish color. The next strike that landed on him threw up sparks, but he didn't appear to take any damage from it. Tamshir sagged, apparently exhausted from the one spell and Ephram caught her before climbing to take her place.
Cooper, meanwhile, had been busy making a stack out of more of the corpses in the room, which he now climbed up.
“Different angle of attack , in case he goes defensive,” Cooper called out, nocking an arrow and firing.
Eddie heaved a sigh, happy to have more of the party involved in the fight again, then looked around and realized that he didn't have any options for himself to get back in it.
Out in the last room he saw Becky tending to Bob. Jern was breathing again, but pale, and Bob looked almost as bad.
“I'll take care of them,” Becky called. “Don't worry about us.”
Bubbles stood in the door between the two rooms, looking about as mean as a rat the size of a large dog could. Which took Eddie's mind back to Lucky. He looked over at the cat, who was pacing and looking at the thorns.
“I know you could make it over, Lucky,” he said. “But wait until I figure out a way that I can.”
Lucky came over next to him, then slammed her hind quarters against him, causing him to double over her back. She was supporting his weight entirely and took a step or two before letting him slide off. Then she looked back at him.
“Really? You want me to ride you over the wall?” Eddie asked.
The thought had as much been pushed into his mind as a visual, the bobcat's actions simply reinforcing it. Once he spoke, she dropped low on all fours.
“Okay,” Eddie said, drawing it out.
Then he swung a leg over Lucky, laid down and wrapped his arms around her neck and his legs around her belly.
Lucky broke into a sprint, straight at the pile of corpses Cooper had made. Cooper, seeing the incoming bobcat, threw himself back against the wood of the wall as Lucky started leaping up the corpse pile. When she reached the top she threw herself at the wall, redirecting her body with her paws, much like the wolf had earlier on.
The landing wasn't perfect. Lucky nearly fell and ended up skidding about ten feet along the floor and Eddie went sliding off her back, but now they were on the other side of the wall.
Eddie came to his knees and pulled out his bow.
Well, Frostbite won't do much damage that won't regenerate, but Arcing arrows leave burns, I wonder if he'll heal that? Eddie thought.
Drawing an Arcing arrow, Eddie fired at the back of the king, the troll taking the arrow in the middle of his back and being utterly surprised by it.
By now Charles and Campbell were glowing gold almost constantly as the healers poured on the heals. Eddie watched the electricity play over the king for a few seconds until it dispersed. He fired some normal arrows at the Champion for a few seconds then glanced back over to see the burn marks from his arrow still on the King's back.
“Yes!” he cried, pumping his hand once before reaching for another Arcing arrow.
Eddie fired until he was out of the Arcing arrows, and still the King was standing, battering away at Charles. They'd now repositioned themselves, Charles had noticed that Eddie was now on this side of the barrier and interposed himself between the King and Eddie.
Campbell was doing only a little better. The Champion had slowed down some and apparently Campbell knew its fighting pattern or something, because he was taking advantage of the Champion's lack of Agility to land strikes. They weren't massive damage dealers, but they did seem to be adding up, even if the Champion seemed to heal faster than even the players did. Lucky had jumped in to work on the Champion with Campbell, racing past to strike it with her claws any time she saw the opportunity.
Eddie switched targets, not having any arrows left that would do much to the king. This time he pulled out his Biting arrows and started firing at the Champion. He didn't have a lot of these arrows, not having had enough time to make as many as he wanted, but he figured it was time to use them. The third Biting arrow that he shot had rime spreading on the Champion. It didn't drop its weapon, but Eddie noted that it was moving even more slowly now than it had been before. Campbell noticed also and pushed hard, moving to a more offensive attack pattern.
Eddie continued firing the rest of his Biting arrows and by the time he was done, the Champion was staggering under the barrage of arrows and Campbell's attacks. Ephram and Cooper, who hadn't been able to do much to the King, had also been firing at the Champion right along, and now it was showing. The Champion staggered once, then collapsed under Campbell's next attack.
The king saw the Champion's fall and roared, enraged. Despite Charles' frequent attacks, the only damage that had stayed with the king was that from Dominic's continuing spells, Ferring's tiny balls of acid, and Eddie's Arcing arrows.
Just then Alyx called out.
“Out of mana!”
“I'm low on it also,” Tiana added.
Eddie heard a lot of chatter from the other side of the wall, but didn't pay any attention to it. He was, against his better judgment, moving in until he was close enough to use his Arc spell directly on the King.
Cast arc, Eddie thought, staring at the king.
The troll's body lit up with electricity just as Eddie's notification light started blinking. He pulled it up and swiped it away, noting the extra level in Arc as he did so.
You have upgraded the spell Arc to (6). Bound and determined to fight with magic, aren't you? Well, at least this time it's because you can't hurt it otherwise.
The group chat popped at that moment and Eddie felt a dash of relief.
[group chat: Dominic – Tiana, take those potions for you and Alyx, mana restoration.]
Eddie couldn't help it, his gaze flickered over to the wall of thorns, only to see Becky handing things up to Tiana.
Good, more backup, plus I've got more damage on my Arc spell now. Let's see if we can finish this, he thought.
“Cooper, Ephram, normal flame should do it also. Rig fire arrows!” Eddie screamed as the thought came to him.
He tossed Arc after Arc at the king as Charles continued to tank him. The heals had slacked off for a minute or two, but now Charles was glowing golden again. It was less than a minute later when Eddie saw the non-magical flaming arrows start to strike the king as well.
Eddie kept casting his Arc spell until he was sure he was low on mana, then called it up to check.
Mana: 8/475
Damn it, Only one more Arc spell before I'm out of mana, Eddie thought. Hey, I wonder if the hit or miss function works with spells too, I thought Dominic told me you could get critical hits with those also.
Eddie paused for a moment.
Hit or Miss, he thought. Cast Arc.
The bolt of electricity that struck the king this time was much la
rger than the others, it even left him twitching for a few seconds, but he was still standing when the little arcs of electricity disappeared.
“Out of mana!” Eddie shouted.
He hadn't seen any spells from Dominic for a minute or so and assumed the same was true for him.
Hopefully he saved some mana regen potions for himself and has just been taking them, Eddie thought.
[group chat: Tiana – Eddie, see if you can get Charles to disengage without warning the troll. Ten feet away from him at least.]
How the hell am I supposed to do that? Eddie wondered.
Lucky had come back over to him after the Champion had dropped, but had showed no interest at all in attacking the troll. Now Eddie dropped to his knees.
“Lucky,” he said softly in her ear, “if you can do it without getting hurt I want you to trip up that troll. Get behind his legs and Charles will understand.”
As Lucky darted around the room to get behind the troll, Eddie edged closer to Charles, he waved Campbell off since the man had finally recovered and was starting to move in on the troll. Campbell cocked his head in curiosity, but went ahead and backed off.
Once Lucky was in place behind the troll Eddie called out.
“Trip him up, Charles.”
Charles lunged forward and the troll went to step backwards, only to find the massive bobcat in his way. The king tumbled over the bobcat and Eddie whistled for her to return to him. Then he leaned in next to Charles' head.
“Disengage, at least ten feet back,” Eddie said.
Lucky came bounding over as the troll started to regain its feet. Once Eddie and Charles were back far enough, a torrent of flame spilled out of the air over the troll, sending it back to the floor with the pain. The king struggled to rise, but arrows continued to pound it as the flame bathed it.
Eddie looked up at Tiana who was starting to go pale with the effort and mana usage, but she kept the torrent of flame going. The floor beneath the King was burning by the time Tiana collapsed, spilling off the wall of thorns where she'd been standing. The king was still trying, feebly, to stand, but Campbell and Charles closed in on it. Any time it tried to crawl out of the flames their shields would lash out, bashing it, and sending it back into the flames.
Finally the troll went still and there was a shimmer in the air as the invisible wall dissipated. The wall of thorns and the pile of corpses both spilled onto what had been the other side of the wall since they'd both been supported by it. Cooper, Ephram, and Alyx all falling with it.
Eddie raced over to Tiana, who was pale as a ghost, her eyes squinted shut, tears streaming down her face.
“Are you alright?” Eddie asked.
She shook her head.
“Mana burn,” she managed to say, wincing as she did so.
“Ow,” he said. “How bad was it?”
“Well, I didn't pay attention to my mana, just channeled the spell until I couldn't any more. The pain interrupted my channeling. So, I'm currently at negative six mana, six days without spells is going to suck,” she said, wincing again just from the sound of her own voice. “It's good it went when it did, when the mana burn hit after the last tick's upkeep....”
She shook her head.
“I wouldn't have been able to keep it going. I know you're able to do that, theoretically, but I couldn't. It just hurt too much.”
She rubbed her legs psychosomatically and this time it was Eddie that winced.
If the pain reminded her of her accident, that would've been enough to break her concentration all on its own, Eddie thought.
“Well, you dropped it anyhow, good work,” Eddie said.
She grinned faintly at him, then it disappeared as she grimaced and rubbed at her temples once more.
“Let's get this all taken care of and then see if we can get out of here,” he said.
She nodded.
“I'm just going to sit here for a bit, if you don't mind.”
“Do you want me to help you get out of the room with the others? Jern almost died, I think Bob kept him from it, but paid for it.”
She nodded, and reached a hand up. Eddie took it and pulled her to her feet, then supported her as she made her way to the last room.
Bob looked almost as bad as Tiana. Jern was breathing, but lying on his back. His arm was intact, although it looked like even with the healing there'd be a nasty scar.
“Damn,” Bob said. “I didn't realize that Jern was an NPC, that spell works differently on them, costs lots more mana,” he said.
“Sorry, I thought you knew,” Eddie said. “But thanks, it was close, and I'd hate to lose Jern, he's a good friend.”
“That was closer than I'd prefer to admit,” Charles said. “Is everyone okay?”
Eddie looked around.
“Um, where's Allie?”
“Check your notifications,” Tiana said, wearily.
A quick scan showed that Allie had been sent to respawn during the fight, Eddie hadn't noticed because he'd turned all of his notifications except for levels and skill-ups off.
“Shit, that sucks,” he said. “Are Karl and Stalker mobile again yet?”
A glance in the other room showed him that the two were still rigid.
“Does that wear off?” he asked.
Charles shrugged.
“I don't know, Alyx?”
“It should, but it's level dependent. I've got a spell that might take care of it also, but not enough mana to use it twice yet. I figured I should wait until I could do both before doing either,” she said.
“Good plan,” Eddie said. “Let either out first and the other would never hear the end of it from the first one. So, should we loot, or wait for those two? I think waiting for people to get back from respawn is right out though.”
Cooper had wandered over while they were talking, and he nodded at Eddie's appraisal.
“If there's something suited for them, we can get it to them later on. So, yeah, let's loot the corpses and then wait for Stalker and Karl before we look for any sort of boss loot. I'd much rather have some rogues along to check out anything we find before we touch it,” Cooper said.
“Good plan, Cooper,” Charles replied.
He gestured back into the other room and they moved out to loot the corpses.
~ ~ ~
They were finished with the corpses before Alyx was ready to remove the paralysis from the two rogue types. The best item that dropped was the torc from the king, but there had been several other interesting items on the shaman, and a few higher quality items from the generals had dropped. The Champion had a longsword, but Charles had taken a look and shook his head. Campbell, on the other hand, had hugged the longsword like a long lost child when it was offered to him.
The three mages all ended up with items from the shaman. Tamshir now had a wand similar to Dominic's, Dominic had gotten a ring that would help with his armor rating, and Ferring had claimed a fetish from around the Ancient Shaman's neck.
Eddie got a Giant Wolf pelt from the wolf, along with a bunch of wolf meat, and a collar that he wanted to check before putting it on Lucky. He found himself hoping that the raid rewards or boss loot, assuming they found it, included items, because there just wasn't that much that would suit him on the corpses. Heavy armor, shields, longswords and the like made up most of the things from the corpses, barring the coin of course. The coin alone just wasn't worth it though.
Alyx removed the paralysis on the two rogues a minute or two after they finished looting corpses. Eddie had planned on immediately putting them to work, but evidently being frozen in place for a while wasn't exactly restful. Both of them collapsed to the floor and complained that their legs were asleep badly enough that they felt like blocks of wood.
A few minutes later Eddie finally coaxed them back into a standing position and set them to looking for where the boss loot might be. There hadn't been anything obvious that the rest of the groups had been able to find, so he was hoping that these two might be able to fi
nd something.
Assuming it's here, but it would be a really lame raid if the boss loot was only the stuff looted from the corpses, he thought.
“Aha! Here we go,” Stalker said, stopping at a section of wall that looked no different to Eddie.
The rogue pulled out a dagger and ran it along a section of wall. A piece of something fell out leaving a very thin crack. Stalker continued and, soon enough, the outline of a door was revealed in the wall.
“Shall we?” Charles asked.
“Yeah, but...” Stalker started, then stopped.
“Need to trigger it first,” he muttered, then started searching the baseboard near the floor.
“There we go,” Stalker muttered after Eddie heard a click.
A moment later Stalker reached down and did something to the baseboard. The door eased open silently, revealing a small room, maybe ten by ten feet. Several chests were nestled along the back wall of it and Stalker blocked the door when Karl tried to rush in.
“Wait for it,” Stalker said. “They had a trap on the door, so we really ought to check everything else too, you know?”
Ten minutes later Stalker was happy with the situation, having checked the floor in the room and the chests themselves.
“Now we can open it,” Stalker said.
Karl was the first one into the room, but Eddie wasn't far behind him, hoping to find something of use to him in the boss loot.
~ ~ ~
Chapter Eleven
Why can't I get back out of here? Loki wondered as his steps were guided along a hallway.
Loki tried to release his grip on the consciousness of the body and flee, but the firewall was blocking him still.
It's supposed to keep things out, not in. How did I defeat it before? he thought.
As the memory surfaced, Loki realized that he'd have to completely release control of the body and focus exclusively on the firewall if he were to have any hope of overcoming it.
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