I skidded to a halt before I came into their view.
“Damnit, it was a trap,” I hissed, holding Twill back. My eyes casting to Rose and Harrison’s health bars. Thankfully, they weren’t dropping very fast. Still, death by a thousand cuts was still death.
I tried to activate my ‘Stealth’ skill, hoping I was still considered out of combat. When the icon appeared by my name in my UI, I crept forward. I reached the edge of the wall before the banister began, turning back to look. There were almost a dozen Slavers with bows. And with their firing angles, there was no way anyone was sneaking up those stairs.
Part of me was angry with Heath, Sooty, and Nahid. All three of them missed the ambush. Then again, I didn’t know if there was some kind of magic at play, an illusion or something.
I stepped back out of view and let go of my ‘Stealth’. “Baby, I need a fresh ward,” I said.
“Done,” Baby said, casting the spell with ease.
“I’m about to do something very stupid. Hopefully, it will buy Harrison and Rose the time they need to escape,” I said, taking a few quick breaths to psych myself up. I equipped my Phalanx Shield and ran.
I charged to the bottom of the stairs and cast ‘Boar Charge’, aiming for the top of the stairs where the bow wielding Slavers gathered in three rows of four. Even though it lasted for all of two seconds, it was enough to knock most of them over but not enough to get all of them.
I jumped, wincing as my HP dropped with each arrow that hit. I know, I didn’t have much height to my jump with the low ceiling, but I triggered ‘Holy Meteor’ anyway.
Spell: Holy Meteor
Level: 3
Experience: 0.00%
Description: Fall from the heavens, pierce and shatter the world with your divine might.
Spell Cast Speed: Instant
Range: 50-yards
Spell Effect (Active): Deal -2-HP damage per point of MP and SP used plus weapon damage. Jumping or falling from height multiplies your damage by 1 per 15-feet. Ignores armor, cannot be blocked. Damage in excess of targets remaining health will explode, spreading any remaining damage equally to all targets within 50-yards of impact.
Mana Cost: All
Stamina Cost: All
All my SP and HP vanished in an instant as a wave of holy damage exploded outward from the epicenter of where I landed. Barely a 15-foot jump from the bottom of the stairs to the top and almost no room to fall, but it still seemed to count as each of the Slavers took -1,214-HP damage and were knocked off their feet again. I cursed. It didn’t even take out 10% of their health.
But it did reveal a figure that wasn’t present before. Köke, the Bandaka Slaver’s Lefthand was sprawled out in the middle of the group of archers. I blinked in surprise at seeing him there. He looked up at me and then vanished, like a mirage. I didn’t think it was ‘Stealth’. And suddenly, the trap made a lot more sense. Köke used Illusion magic, and he was good enough at it that he fooled Heath, Sooty, and Nahid.
Of course, the stealthy trio chose that moment to appear, each stabbing into one of the archers. A blur on my left and right cleared quickly to reveal Rose and Harrison, their dual shields working in tandem to gain aggro on the archers who were undoubtedly eager to kill me.
Sadly, I was completely useless until I could regain some MP and SP.
Olaf and Micaela came charging up the stairs next, weapons in hand and attacking as they moved.
The last one up was Gofi, who nearly trampled me in his overzealous attempt to get into the fight just a little faster.
I drank a potion, restoring some of my SP. Just barely enough for me to fight in the melee against a group of Slavers that seemed to have focused all their efforts on their bowmanship.
The fight didn’t last much longer after that. But Köke never reappeared, most likely, he moved on to set up another ambush.
“I am sorry, Bye-bye,” Sooty said, appearing first. “I did not see the ambush. I . . . I failed you.”
“Relax Sooty,” Heath said, clapping a hand on the Dwarf’s shoulder. “I didn’t see through that illusion either and illusions are one of my things.”
Sooty nodded reluctantly.
“That said, he was good, Bye-bye, very good,” Heath said seriously.
“So how do we beat him?” Harrison asked.
Heath sighed. “Area of effect spells. It’s about the only way to flush him out.”
“And that is something we are light on,” I said.
“Bombs for the win,” Olaf said, grinning. “I might have overstocked on them when I was getting ready for the grootslang hunt.”
“That could work,” Heath said.
“Alright, we have a plan. Drink up and get ready to move. Obviously, they know we’re coming now. Let’s make sure they understand how little that really matters,” Olaf said, pulling out his own flask from his bag.
It took a few minutes, mostly waiting on me to recover because I spent all my SP and MP in an attempt to stop those archers in one go. Hopefully, I wouldn’t need to do that again.
The landing at the top of the stairs was connected to a single hallway going east. At the end of which was another open door.
“Heath, want to try again?” I asked, my eyes fixed on the doorway.
Heath nodded, vanishing from view. He didn’t have as far to go this time and so was back quickly. “Nothing,” he said.
“More illusions then,” Olaf said. “Only one thing to do then. Let’s flush them out.”
Olaf went to the door and put his back against the wall next to the door. He lit a pair of bombs and tossed them randomly into the room. When his arm came back, he moved quickly to produce two more and light them, even as the first two detonated. He tossed in those two and repeated the process. Ten more pair of bombs entered that room and two experience notifications were all we got.
“Rose, go,” Olaf ordered.
Rose didn’t say anything as she entered. “Got Köke,” she shouted back.
That was all we needed to run in and attack.
Köke looked terrible. He was burned in several places. He had pieces of shrapnel impaling him. And his HP was down to almost a third.
“Stupid adventurers,” Köke hissed, smirking. His body blowing away like smoke in the wind.
Then Rose fell, one hand trying to reach for her back where a dagger was jabbed into her. I saw a new debuff by her name, ‘Pierced Nerves’.
And we were in another trap. Worse, the door we entered through was now gone. And worst of all, the room . . . changed. The damage from Olaf’s bombs disappeared. None of the broken furniture was visible.
“Turtle in a corner,” Olaf ordered, pulling the dagger from Rose’s shoulder and helping her back to her feet, the debuff vanished as soon as the dagger was removed.
“Anyone have a plan?” Twill asked nervously, tucking himself farthest back into the corner.
“Yeah, just stack up tight,” Olaf ordered, settling in, just in front of Twill with Micaela on his other side.
“What is this great plan of yours?” Rose asked.
“Gofi, charge,” Olaf shouted.
“Charge what?” Gofi asked.
“Everything!” Olaf yelled.
Gofi laughed loudly. “I like the way you think, Cowman.”
Micaela snorted a laugh.
“Not the time, babe,” Olaf chided.
“Tuck in tight,” Harrison warned, pushing back into the corner and setting his shield-wall next to Rose’s, creating a barricade.
I was just tall enough to see Gofi blur, shooting from one side of the room to the other, nothing standing in his way or slowing him down. When he slammed into one wall, he shook his head then charged again, seemingly in a random direction until he hit another wall, even the shield-wall.
I heard glass breaking then coughed. My friends were coughing next to me. Then I saw the debuff ‘Poison Gas’ and the first tick of damage, a fat -123-HP and -130-HP a second after that.
I quickly cast ‘Holy
Cleanse’ on myself only to breathe and regain the same debuff. I cast it again but this time I held my breath. I started casting it on the others, repeatedly which Baby tried to keep healing them until eventually the gas dissipated.
“Don’t breathe in the gas next time,” I warned. “In fact, next time, move us to another corner.”
“You got it, Jack,” Rose agreed.
I focused back on the charging Rhinoman. Not five seconds later, there was a howl of pain as the illusions covering the room vanished and Köke became visible with a ‘Stunned’ debuff.
“Attack now,” Olaf shouted.
Rose and Harrison both blurred forward. Their shields both slammed into the Illusionist. Hand-cannons fired, fireballs flew, the stealthy trio appeared, stabbed, and disappeared. I jumped in, hit him with my spear as many times as I could, adding whatever spell damage I could, even extending the stunned effect.
“Turtle,” Olaf ordered as soon as the stun faded.
We quickly moved back into the same corner. Unfortunately for me, it was my turn to get stabbed in the back. Making me drop to the floor with the same ‘Pierced Nerves’ debuff. A third of my HP was gone with that one stab.
Rose came to my rescue only to get stabbed again herself.
“Drag them to safety,” Micaela said, running in and grabbing my arm, starting to pull me back. I saw Harrison doing the same thing out of the corner of my eye for Rose. She was up first and putting up her shield next to Harrison’s.
The dagger was pulled from my back when I heard a thud from behind me. Twill was down with a dagger in the back.
“Sorry in advance,” I said, unleashing a ‘Holy Blast’ into the corner of the room, breaking the illusion and revealing Köke again as well as dealing a fair bit of damage to my friends.
With Köke revealed, everyone suddenly turned to attack him, but he already vanished. I saw Micaela then Rose pushed aside as footsteps retreated. Then another wave of the ‘Poison Gas’ debuffs hit. This time, we moved quickly to another corner, hoping we didn’t get trampled by Gofi’s random charge.
Having dragged Twill with us, I pulled the dagger out then helped Twill back to his feet. He looked shaken from the attack, and considering how low his health was, it was understandable.
A minute later, Gofi’s charge finally hit Köke again, trampling him for damage and stunning him.
“Attack,” Olaf ordered.
I leaped in with everyone else but out of the corner of my eye, I saw something worrisome. Gofi’s SP bar was nearly drained. Looking back to Köke, he was still at 36% of his HP bar.
“Baby, give Gofi your best SP potion,” I yelled, continuing my attack, pushing my damage hard. Willing Köke to just die.
It wasn’t to be.
At just 7% HP, he vanished again.
“Turtle up,” Olaf ordered, moving toward the same corner. I ran slightly ahead and fired off a ‘Holy Blast’ into the corner, avoiding hurting my team but more importantly, breaking Köke’s illusion again.
I jumped in and attacked, and I wasn’t alone. Rose charged, stunning Köke, buying us a few seconds. We stabbed and cast spells. Harrison charged next and stunned Köke. Then Gofi charged one last time, impaling the Slaver on his horn and ending the fight once and for all.
Gofi roared in triumph, the Slaver still impaled on his horn. With a casual flick of his head, Gofi dislodged Köke’s body.
“Ha, victory is ours! Who is next?” Gofi shouted in challenge.
With all the illusions the guy threw around, I checked my quest text just to make sure. Not sure that it would even tell me.
Class Quest Alert: Assist the Warrior Priest of the God Oshosi
You have been charged by the God Oshosi to assist his Warrior Priest in bringing the Bandaka Slave Ring to an end. Eliminate Khan, Righthand Chagha'an, and Lefthand Köke
Reward: Experience, 15-Sigils of the Goddess Issara, Hidden
I breathed a small sigh of relief when I saw Köke’s name with a line through it. If that fight had gone on much longer, Köke might have stabbed Baby. And as much damage as that attack did to the rest of us, I wasn’t sure Baby would have survived it. And if we lost Baby, some of us probably would have died. I tried to think of a way to defeat him with a different group and I just didn’t know if it was possible. As much as Gofi annoyed me, I’m fairly certain that without him, we wouldn’t have been able to defeat that guy.
Anyway, now that the fight was over, I finally had a chance to look around the room without the illusions. I was . . . confused. There were no doors except for the one we entered through. There were no stairs either. There was just . . . nothing.
“What did we miss?” Olaf asked.
“So far, this keep has basically mirrored itself. So, if there is a room on this side of the keep, then?” Heath asked.
“There is a room on the other side,” I said. “Back the way we came.”
“Give the man a rubber ducky,” Heath joked. “But seriously, are we going to loot this guy’s corpse?”
“I don’t think I want anything from this guy. I think, I would feel dirty if I did,” Rose said, expressing the way most of us felt.
“Fair enough,” Heath said, returning to ‘Stealth’.
I know we probably should have looted the body, but we didn’t. We just left it there. Maybe the Bazaar would come back and take everything they could from the fortress to help the people we rescued.
On the other side of the landing by the stairs there was now a short hallway and door that weren’t there before.
“I got 50-Gold says the Righthand is there,” Micaela said.
There was concerted chorus of “No bet!” from all of us.
Micaela just giggled.
“Alright, let’s see what where dealing with,” Olaf said. “Heath, you’re up.”
Chapter 30
“It’s just like we thought . . . well, mostly like we thought,” Heath reported, having just returned from scouting the next room. “Righthand Chagha'an is there, sitting back in a wooden chair.”
“Easy then, we charge him and don’t let him back up,” Rose interjected.
“Not exactly,” Heath said. “Chosi is there . . . and so is Najah.”
“And?” Rose asked.
“Not sure what it means, but both of them have a debuff ‘Slave Collared’. That plus the whip Chagha’an was holding suggest they might be an obstacle for us,” Heath said.
I groaned then complained, “Level 25 Chosi and Level 30 Najah, just what we need.”
“Are you sure about those levels?” Heath asked.
“Yeah, why?” I asked.
“Alright, I’m just guessing here, but it seems the ‘Slave Collared’ debuff reduced each of their levels by 5,” Heath explained.
Finally some good news.
“What about traps? You see anything?” Harrison asked.
“Couldn’t get close enough to look into it,” Heath said, getting surprised looks. “Yeah, whenever I got too close, both Chosi and Najah started to look my way, which for those of you who don’t know, it means they had some way of sensing me. That said, what I could explore of the room was trap free.”
“Let’s assume no traps for now,” Olaf said, moving things along. “Alright, who wants to tank the slaves and who wants Chagha’an?”
“Chagha’an,” Rose and Harrison echoed at the same time.
“My shields have thorns, they might kill Chosi or Najah on accident,” Rose defended, then paused and looked at Olaf. “We do want to keep them alive, right?”
Olaf looked to me.
“I promised Tikka we would try to save her sister,” I said. “Nahid, you need to tell us what you want for your sister.”
“It would be better if you kill her,” Nahid answered. She looked like she was about to vanish back into ‘Stealth’ when Sooty appeared and stopped her.
“Do not be like that, lass. You tell them what you really want,” Sooty said.
The cat ears on top of Nahid’s
head flattened and the girls face scrunched but she didn’t say anything.
“Tell them,” Sooty insisted.
“She is my sister,” Nahid said softly. “I know she is trying to kill me, but I do not want her dead. I know it is best if she is dead, but I do not want it. But we cannot leave her a slave either.”
“So, we save them both,” Rose said, then looking back to Harrison she added, “See, my shields might kill the people we’re trying to keep alive. Therefore, I get Chagha’an and you get the mind-controlled killer cats.”
It was unfortunate that we had never fought against Chagha’an. We had no way of knowing what his abilities were. Going to fights blind was a quick way to a wipe. Something that could have happened just as easily fighting Köke the way we did.
“Okay, Rose you get Chagha’an. Harrison, the slaves, assuming they are going to attack us. If they don’t attack, then help Rose,” Olaf ordered. “Everyone else, focus on killing Chagha’an.”
Rose grinned in victory and clapped both of her shields together, something I had come to recognize as her pre-battle ritual. “Charging!” Rose cried as she stepped around the corner and blurred from view.
“Charging,” Harrison said a moment later then also blurring from view. And it might have been my imagination, but I was pretty sure that Harrison was pouting.
“Start damage slowly,” Rose said, blocking as the whip in Chagha’an’s hand blurred, cracking loudly as it cut through the air then struck her shields with a rapid staccato of strikes. I noted that with each hit, Rose was pushed back a step and Chagha’an took a step back, creating distance between them.
Meanwhile, Harrison had picked up the two slaves easily. They really were collared. Around each of their necks was a glowing red leather band.
Chagha’an grinned wickedly, he struck again with the whip, but not at Rose. Instead it struck Chosi, drawing a red line on her back. “Kill for me,” he shouted, pointing at Rose.
Suddenly Chosi stopped attacking Harrison and leaped at Rose’s unprotected back, leaping on her. Chosi bit and clawed rapidly, absolutely chunking away at Rose’s HP.
World Tree Online- the Endless Savanna- 3rd Dive Page 52