Dexterity Build: A LitRPG Saga (The Complete Dexterity Build Cycle)

by Steven J Shelley

  “Now’s our chance,” Lee said, quickening her pace.

  The pair fell in with the triumphant infantry. Now that the kobolds had been broken, morale was high. Many of these soldiers were looking forward to reuniting with the folks that had been trapped in the castle cellars for the duration of the siege.

  Nick and Lee were over halfway across the drawbridge when a shrill voice called Nick’s name. It was Siena89, a slight wizard who stood out in a sea of royal blue.

  “I wanted you to look on the face of your murderer,” she said, unleashing an area spell.

  Nick wanted to roll, but his arms and legs were bound. A tangle of roots and branches had sprung from the bridge to ensnare him. Lee was similarly affected.

  “What now?” he groaned.

  Lee had no immediate answer. The Earth Mage approached with all the time in the world. The marching soldiers paid her no mind. They regarded Nick and Lee with mild curiosity, nothing more. Understandably, their single-minded focus was on the castle.

  Siena89 thrust her arm forward and a rock smashed against Nick’s chest piece, very nearly breaking it. His HP continued to fall as the branches squeezed him. Lee’s body flared with rippling energy and she was suddenly free. She sliced Nick’s branches away and dodged a second earth attack. The stone thudded into the back of a soldier, who turned and glared at Siena89.

  “Watch it, mercenary,” he growled before continuing.

  Eyes darting left and right, Siena89 was too busy worrying about the other soldiers to notice Nick circling to her rear. He rolled and back-stabbed her with his katana. The mage had a very low DR and crumpled like a dry leaf.

  Lee looted her quickly and discreetly.

  “Bunch of fucking scrolls,” she muttered. “Useless.”

  “Why did she attack us here?” Nick wondered. “So many soldiers around.”

  “We’re near the end,” Lee shrugged. “Guess they want their bounty.”

  “Cowards,” Nick spat, passing under the huge western gatehouse.

  The castle’s yard was in a state of flux. There were plenty of tearful reunions between soldiers and their families, but there were defensive preparations to be made. An unnatural sound echoed across the fields - Hager’s army. Nick and Lee took to the upper ramparts for a look. The infernal army was approaching from the north. The infantrymen looked to be of the heavy orc variety. Nick hadn’t seen them in Oakshield Junction for quite some time, but knew they were formidable foes.

  “Strong and aggressive, but eminently dodgeable,” Lee said confidently.

  “That’s good to know,” Nick said, scanning the column for Hager. He couldn’t see the demon, but knew he’d be lurking in the vicinity.

  King Alain and his retinue had decided to re-locate to the castle. Soldiers cleared a path for the royal wagon train as it trundled across the western drawbridge. What remained of the kobold siege camp was being dismantled by teams of sappers. Catapults and ballistae were either taken to pieces or burned. Kobold corpses were thrown on massive bonfires. The act was as much a warning to Hager’s army as it was a matter of necessity, but Nick doubted it have much affect.

  The last of the wagon train and royal army crossed the moat and the drawbridge was raised once more. Nick had to admit to feeling a little more secure. Bishop Haam, Danera Flint and her cowled rogues joined Nick and Lee at the ramparts. There was a strange hunger in the Bishop’s black eyes.

  “Never have I seen such an abomination,” he grunted. “How I wish the Lich Queen was by my side.”

  Nick exchanged a nervous glance with Lee.

  “Close the internal gates!” barked a Durandorian officer as he prowled the ramparts. “Re-calibrate the siege engines!”

  Nick and Lee needed to clear the ramparts to make room for the siege engines. Those leading orc units were moving unnaturally fast, perhaps buffed by magic.

  “Here they come,” Lee said. “Maybe we should wait down in the yard.”

  Nick had a sense of foreboding as they descended the stairs. He thought he caught a glimpse of Vanen wheeling through the sky far to the south. All the heavy-hitters were in place to take him down. Yul Sandor wasn’t the type to take chances. Nick usually made a point of keeping the outside world at bay when he was gaming, but it was impossible this time.

  Lee provided a welcome distraction when she found a herb vendor to heal their wounds. The yard was thick with soldiers and civilians. Ideally, the mothers, children and elderly would return to their hiding places, leaving the soldiers to do what they did best. But King Alain, the one who need to show strong leadership, was nowhere to be seen. Not for the first time, Nick questioned his ability to lead the Kingdom of Men.

  Nick and Lee positioned themselves in the shadow of the keep, watching the nervous throng closely. There were several gamertags in that crowd. They were surrounded by bounty hunters.

  “Too many people,” Lee muttered. “This yard is gonna be a bloodbath.”

  Nick shifted nervously on his feet - all this waiting was killing him. That orc army out there could easily account for the exhausted, disorganized human defenders. Their hardest challenge would be breaching the castle walls.

  “When they break through, we stay by this wall,” Lee said.

  “Don’t you mean ‘if’?” Nick asked hopefully.

  Lee grinned. “Just stay by my side. I’ll get you through.”

  Nick drew his weapons. Lee might have been a mess in the real world, but her in-game instincts were rarely wrong. Sure enough, there were shouts from the ramparts and a flurry of movement. Everyone in the yard watched in horror as a body was flung to the stones where it lay twisted at an odd angle - Great Mage Picello. His body was charred to a crisp.

  The raised drawbridge shook as it was assailed by immense forces. The defenders watched in horror as it was consumed by roaring flames.

  “Fire mages,” Lee said. “Lots of them.”

  “They’ll be vulnerable inside the castle,” Nick observed. “The infantry will breach first.”

  The adrenalin of battle diminished Nick’s fear and heightened his senses. The defenders sagged back from the gatehouse as the drawbridge collapsed in swirling ash eddies. Soaring fireballs impacted against the wrought iron gate. The hottest spots began melting into slag. A glowing bridge constructed from some kind of earth magic now spanned the moat and a vanguard of berserker orcs rushed through the gatehouse.

  The ferocious warriors pushed deep into the ragged throng, cleverly making room for those behind them. The yard quickly became an intense battlefield. Nick was moved by the sight of women and children taking up arms against the invaders, no matter the odds. These were folks protecting their homes and would not be denied the chance to go down fighting.

  “Let’s go orc hunting,” Nick said.

  Lee nodded, but they both hesitated. It was difficult to maintain defensive positions when your attack style hinged on constant movement.

  “Follow my lead,” Lee said, twirling her scimitars and searching for her first target.

  As it turned out, their first adversary was an opportunistic pixel runner. A Paladin by the name of RogerRottern wanted to claim his prize - Nick’s head. He sported heavy armor and a fearsome-looking mace.

  Nick instinctively flanked left while Lee went right. With her heavier armor she could afford to be slightly bolder with her strafing. Supremely skilled at feinting, she drew a full-blooded swing and Nick moved in for a two disciplined slashes before moving away.

  RogerRottern tried to buff himself but Lee didn’t allow it, slashing him across the throat. From there, all Nick had to do was move in for a back-stab. It was the perfect co-op kill, but there was no time to look dreamily into each other’s eyes.

  “Rear!” Lee warned, and Nick spun around to face a snorting orc.

  It felt surreal to be battling such an time-honored creature. From their acrid body odor to the mucus dripping dripping from their snouts, they were incredibly life-like. This one charged aggressively, almost
bowling Nick over with his momentum. Nick slashed the grunt on his way through, scoring moderate damage. He was slowly getting the hang of the hack and run principle of attack. It was completely against the strength build mentality, but he was getting used to it.

  The Bonded pair found themselves engaging three orc grunts at a time. There were far more human corpses on the ground than orcs. If the defenders couldn’t stem the flow of underworld infantry, the castle would fall and Nick himself would pay the ultimate price.

  The coming fight would hinge on stamina management. Nick and Lee “danced” their way through the strike zone, occasionally getting hit by orcish axes but generally dodging and rolling safely. The orcs were experienced fighters and maintained an effective “closed shop”. They only attacked when there was minimal risk of a counter, which demonstrated a solid understanding of how stamina worked.

  After two minutes of frenetic foxing and dodging, Nick finally broke the deadlock with a daring strafe that bought him within an inch of being killed by an orcish power attack. Circling behind the over-committed orc, Nick back-stabbed with both weapons. The result was a gloriously powerful killing blow. Spooked, the other orcs attacked recklessly. Easy pickings for dexers with cool heads. Within half a minute the engagement was over - three orc grunts had joined the corpses on the blood-slick cobblestones. The pair leveled up quickly, both of them boosting DEX.

  Elsewhere, the hardened veterans of the royal army were putting up a good fight against the orcs. Danera Flint and her rogues were busy setting up diadem prisms along the battlements. It might have been Nick’s imagination, but the orcs were now moving a little sluggishly, as if they were standing in glue.

  Bishop Haam himself was in the thick of the action, swiping at orcs with his huge greataxe. The crazed grin on his face was slightly disturbing, but Nick was just glad to have the Acolyte of the Dead on his side. A bass rumble echoed across the yard - a horn of some kind. The orcs immediately disengaged, falling over each other to withdraw across the earth magic bridge.

  The tension in the yard was palpable. Royal soldiers looked at each other in confusion.

  “Defensive formation,” growled a sergeant, but the soldiers were far too tired.

  The pregnant silence dragged on for an eternity. Each second felt like an hour.

  “Hell knights,” a man whispered, and was immediately chastised for his fanciful notion.

  It just so happened that he was right. A pack of heavily armored knights with fearsome helms marched into the castle yard. Each carried a two-handed greatsword in one hand.

  Nick looked at Lee, who was usually a font of Oakshield wisdom.

  “Never seen them before,” she said. “Clearly strong, but look at the way they move.”

  The knights were moving freely despite their heavy armor. They probably had high DEX scores as well. Could this be where the game-makers finally broke him? There was no time to come up with a workable strategy. The human soldiers faced a score of hell knights - more than enough to cause widespread chaos.

  The knights began swinging their swords as if they were matchsticks, hacking away at anyone within range. Nick saw more than one pixel runner killed in the frenzied onslaught. The hell knights moved with unnatural speed, possibly boosted by a group buff. The diadem prisms on the ramparts seemed ineffective against them. It didn’t take Nick long to find out what was going on - orcs had taken the upper battlements and had presumably smashed every prism they could find. Nick was about to go investigate when Lee grabbed his arm.

  “The prisms are gone,” she said. “We need to face these knights.”

  With growing unease Nick squared up against a knight who made a beeline for him. The enemy moved with superb grace and precision, successfully breaching Nick’s defenses and slashing at his belly. The blow did over 300HP of damage and brought him to his knees. From there it was relatively easy for the hell knight to remove Nick’s head completely. The runner felt tremendous pain as his world went dark.

  He and Lee respawned in a cold cellar somewhere underneath the castle.

  “Sorry,” Nick said sheepishly.

  “That won’t be the first time,” Lee said grimly.

  Thankfully, they’d respawned with full HP bars. The pair quickly made their way into the Great Hall, which was filled with frightened peasant families. From there they descended an external stairwell into the heat of battle once more.

  The tall, imposing figure of Bishop Haam could be seen in the chaotic milieu, swinging his greataxe in powerful arcs. He was holding his own against the enemy without actually being able to deliver a killing blow. If the trend continued, the hell knights would overwhelm the defenders and take the castle forever.

  Nick and Lee had no choice but to keep fighting. Lee was killed almost immediately by a hell knight’s powerful cross-swipe. The pair made their way through the castle yet again, searching in vain for some kind of advantage against their seemingly invincible enemies.

  Nick died twice and Lee died once in the next ten minutes. Nick had a growing sense of deja vu, recalling how he’d struggled against the archers at Lavora High Temple. A timely meeting with a fletcher had been his savior that day. The thought gave him an idea - perhaps he should be looking for Inez’s seer?

  “This isn’t working,” he said to Lee as they surveyed the depressingly one-sided battle from the top of the keep stairs. “Come with me.”

  Lee followed without question. Logic suggested the seer was somewhere in the keep. The pair made their way through the frightened crowd in the Great Hall. Nick wrinkled his nose at the smell - these folks had been trapped down here a long time. After two careful sweeps of the hall, Nick was prepared to give up and try something else.

  “The upper battlements,” Lee suggested. “Maybe the hall is too obvious.”

  Her theory made sense. The pair sprinted through the courtyard, bypassing a battle that would soon be lost if they didn’t find a way of turning the tide. The upper battlements were now orc-controlled. Having successfully smashed the diadem prisms, the enemy was waiting for reinforcements to arrive.

  Nick and Lee got to work, flanking the orcs with quick, decisive DEX attacks. Before long there was a trail of dead behind them, allowing them to level up. Nick boosted DEX and Lee boosted STA. That was an interesting choice at this stage of the game.

  “Doesn’t matter what the game throws at you,” Lee said. “You always need stamina.”

  Nick couldn’t fault her logic.

  Up ahead a familiar figure sat slumped against the wall. Danera Flint had been grievously wounded and was minutes away from death’s embrace.

  “Can we do anything, Danera?” Lee asked, kneeling next to her.

  “I do not fear death,” the master rogue replied, spitting blood. “But I would impart my wisdom before I settle into the Long Peace.”

  Despite his sadness at seeing Danera like this, Nick had a lurch of hope. Was the rogue talking about actual skills? The very thing he’d been missing in his time on Oakshield Junction?

  “Please,” Danera said, her face turning pale. “There isn’t much time.”

  Nick looked at Lee.

  “You go first,” he said.

  Lee’s eyes glazed over as she accessed Danera’s shop screen. Nick had his own turn seconds later.

  Danera’s shop inventory was empty, but a single skill was listed on the right of the screen. Called a Slide Step, it required high DEX and AGL attributes. Nick gratefully accepted the skill and exited the screen.

  “Tell Haam I can see her,” Danera said, her eyes widening. “I can see the Lich Queen.”

  Not sure if she was delirious, Nick closed her eyes gently. Within seconds she was gone.

  “Do you need anything else?” said a tiny voice to their right. A young boy with a water bucket stood by the wall. He was clearly some kind of self-appointed medic.

  “What’s your name?” Nick asked.

  “Janel,” came the reply. “I think I can help you.”

 
Lee looked at Nick with wide eyes. “Seer?”

  It seemed right. Nick could almost sense Inez’s influence here.

  “I don’t know anything about that,” the boy said innocently. “But I think I can help you.”

  Nick was on the verge of accessing whatever the boy was offering but something stopped him. He wrestled with his critical decision for several moments. Perhaps sensing his anguished indecision, Lee took his hand.

  “If there’s the slightest doubt, don’t do it,” she said firmly.

  “What if it’s a trap?” Nick asked. “What if the Syndicate found the Seer and twisted the concept for their own gain?”

  “For what its worth, I think this boy is the real deal,” Lee offered. “You can either change your build now or run as a dexer, come what may.”

  Nick thought of the hell knights. Particularly their seemingly invincible combination of strength and dexterity. He considered the almost limitless exotic combinations that might conceivably bring one of those enemies down. A MAN / FAI combination perhaps, which would offer both area spells and protection buffs. Or a pure STR build, his tried and true tank formula.

  The truth was, he couldn’t see any of those builds succeeding here. Those hell knights were simply too well-rounded. Worse, he couldn’t see his pure DEX build working either. No - he needed to think outside the square. He thought of the skill he’d just acquired off Danera Flint - the Slide Step. If his suspicions were correct, the Slide Step was a short-range movement that couldn’t be attacked. In theory, it was the ultimate DEX maneuver. Except it wasn’t really DEX at all. His thinking was wrong on that. It was more of a master agility skill.

  What if he absolutely maxed AGL and STA on his re-roll? The concept was reckless, almost foolhardy. For starters, he wouldn’t have any STR and DEX to speak off, which meant his damage would be negligible. On the other hand, he should be able to use the Slide Step without burning his stamina.

  Nick’s mind was made up - he would re-roll the most subtle of all builds. He’d also need to remove his armor. What was the point of it if he wasn’t planning on getting hit? He accessed the boy’s character window and was confronted with a clean attribute screen. His heart hammering wildly, Nick dumped all available points into stamina and agility. It felt like madness, but he was now certain it was the only way he could succeed.