by Jason Cheek
“Everyone freeze,” Drasin Cargwyn's terse command suddenly rang out in Raid chat, catching Jodi and the rest of the players by utter surprise, “we’ve got incoming.”
‘Oh shit,’ Jodi thought, hunching down at the base of a particularly large tree as a sinking feeling hit the pit of her stomach. The conversations going on amongst the players around them about the NPCs were less than complimentary.
“They can communicate in raid chat?” Tumms demandingly hissed in her ear as he urgently scrunched up behind her. Not that Jodi turned back to meet his horrified gaze. All around them, the rest of the members of Zeppy’s Heroes were having similar conversations, which included looks of panic as they realized that their shit-talking had been heard by the entire raid of NPCs.
“Hold up,” Zeppy managed to choke out, as all of the players began sharing uncomfortable looks with one another, “all of you can see and use raid chat?”
“Why wouldn’t we be able to use raid chat,” Elandorr asked, giving the Guild Leader an “are you a complete idiot” look, “I’m the one who invited all of you to join our raid in the first place.”
“I … umm … don’t rightly know why you wouldn’t,” Zeppy awkwardly said as his voice trailed away. Like everyone else, he had no idea how to respond to the normally affable Rogue since the lot of them had been going on and on in their typically obnoxious fashion about the various NPCs around them, especially when it became apparent that the less than pleased looks on the NPCs’ faces were due to those same discussions. Before Zeppy could think of a savvy reply, Elandorr spoke up first.
“Look, you don’t have to respect us or even particularly like us,” Elandorr said as if he’d bitten into something distasteful, “You just need to do as we say until we reach Fang Pass and then all of you can head on your own way.” As Zeppy took a deep breath to try and apologize, Jodi saw the Rogue sharply raise a palm up to cut-off whatever meaningless platitude he was going give. “At least, Lord Ironwolf doesn’t treat us with the disrespect that the rest of you newfar do.”
“Talk about a slap in the face,” Jodi muttered under her breath to Tumms, feeling like a total heel as Elandorr looked away in disgust to focus on what was happening in front of them. There really wasn’t anything more that could be said or done to fix what had just gone down between the two very different groups, Jodi realized, as the tremendous sound of snapping trees grew into a crescendo.
Jodi could only watch with sinking dread as a thirty-yard-wide swath of the Dark Forest ahead of the scouting group began shaking as if King Kong were lazily approaching. The only thing that kept her from “running away” as fast as her legs could carry her was the fact that the NPCs didn’t seem overly concerned. That, and there were a shit-ton of Fluffy Deaths, aka Land Piranhas as she nicknamed them, and Pyro Spitters between her and whatever direction she might choose to flee.
The mass of broken branches, leaves, and shattered trunks were slowly shoved aside as three massive pairs of tusks pushed out of the green devastation. The five-foot-long curved tusks were attached to a heavily boned head that was covered in yard long spindly-armored barbs. The ghastly boar-like head was truly a nightmarish sight to behold and was as high off the ground as the top of her head.
As the flat snout snuffed in air like a massive steam engine, the rest of its scarred head was revealed. Its glowing-red eyes scanned the clearing ahead as its head swung from side-to-side while strings of thick spittle were casually flung from whatever it was crunching in its maw. A maw, Jodi uneasily noted, that was so big it could bite a humanoid’s head off with just one chomp. She swore, as its full size became visible, that they were each the size of a city bus.
A quick Identify listed the lead monster as a Level 60 Elite Barbed Ripper while the two sows behind it were Level 58 and 57 respectively. Jodi didn’t know what made these monsters different from their lower-level 45 Elite Barbed Menace cousins in the previous zone that they’d passed through on their way to Requiem, but in her experience, The World tended to skill-up similar monsters with higher-level armor, specialized attacks, and more hit points.
From their battles the day before, Jodi knew well that those spindly-barbs acted like natural heavy armor against most physical attacks. Meaning, that they blocked any attack that didn’t have an armor piercing component to it or that weren’t purely magical in nature. Not that a heavy two-handed Battle Axe or Greatsword couldn’t break through with enough time, but that took a massive amount of work and focus, which alone made these beasts serious threats even without taking into consideration their immense size. If that wasn’t bad enough, from what Jodi had seen of the low-level Gore Boars, those large tusks weren’t anything to mess around with either.
Determining that the way was safe, the Grand Old Boar ponderously moved into the clearing as the rest of the herd of five came trudging out behind the sows. The rear two Boars were obviously younger than their massive parents. Even so, they put an adult Elite Barbed Menace to shame as they safely kept to the middle of the protective V formation the herd was moving in. Jodi was just letting out a sigh of relief, when Drasin’s calm voice sounded in raid chat.
“Elite Barbed Rippers don’t easily aggro even when there are lower-levels in the immediate area.” Jodi watched the Fluffy Deaths and Pyro Spitters fleeing from the path of the monstrous beasts as the Lead Ranger of the scouts continued. “If you see them flare out their spikes, make sure you drop to the ground or you’ll be skewered by their Barbed Storm Strike.”
“What’s a Barbed Storm Strike?” Zeppy asked in a voice tight with fear.
Jodi understood because she felt the same terrifying aura coming from the high-level monsters. Even though she knew it was part of the virtual interface of The World and was supposed to warn players of impending doom by monsters that were too high of a level for them to take on. It was still a psychological punch in the guts whenever it was triggered. Kind of like the feeling you might get while watching an especially intense horror movie that starts making you jump at every odd noise in your house.
That was one of the main reasons that Jodi had chosen to be a Ranged Class and not a Melee Class. Although the pain was only set at fifty percent for her Advanced start, that didn’t sound like too much fun if you were getting stabbed and beaten to death during your gameplay. She couldn’t imagine how bad that must be for a player that was tanking a monster such as this. Jodi’s contemplation was interrupted as the Ranger continued nonplussed.
“That’s when they shoot out all of their spines in a brutal Ranged Attack that covers a ten-yard-area before initiating their Charge Attack.” Seeing the shocked looks on the newfar’s faces, the NPC gave them a grim smile. “It’s pretty much instant death if you take it head on,” Drasin gave the melee players a meaningful look, “though, it does open the beasts up to melee attacks for thirty seconds before their barbs completely regenerate.”
“How many groups of these monsters do you think there are around?” Grody muttered to ChopU Ginsu who was looking green around the gills at the thought of having to close with such a prickly massive monster.
“Drasin is good at what he does,” Elandorr answered Grody without turning around or being asked, “this group only got as close as they did because it was easier to just let them cross our path than trying to go around them.”
Looking out at the NPCs around them, Jodi realized that only Elandorr was willing to actually speak to them. The rest were seething in barely concealed anger. Not surprising after hearing what the players had thought about them, especially the jokes about wishing that they could loot the NPCs’ corpses to get their hands on their premium gear. She could only shake her head at the weirdness of it all. Who would’ve thought NPCs would act anything like this? Jodi remembered hearing V-MMORG’s public releases saying that The World’s NPCs were responsive digital personalities that would appropriately respond and react to players and the situations around them, but she’d never considered what that would actually mean for game play, she th
ought with an uncomfortable sigh.
The Elite Barbed Rippers had nearly wandered out of range, for what Jodi thought would be a safe distance for the raid to continue, when the distinctive sounds of combat began coming from behind them. Everyone froze as they looked back over their shoulders to see the Dark Forest lighting up with the brilliant flashes of Fire and Frost magic. It was intermixed with the screams of humanoids taking damage. Through, as they continued to listen, Jodi realized it was coming from multiple locations further behind them, when the Ranger Leader of the rearguard's voice called out in raid chat.
“We have multiple newfar groups advancing into the region behind us,” Lilshia Heiynore reported as she led her group up to within ten-yards of the main group.
“Enemies or randoms?” Elandorr pointedly asked.
“Enemies,” Lilshia answered without hesitation, “they’re somehow targeting our exact location from multiple directions.”
‘We’re being shadowed,’ Fiona urgently reported as she appeared next to Jodi’s side with a pop of displaced air, ‘but I can’t seem to track down their exact location.”
‘Where?’ Jodi asked, feeling a sense of urgency as the massive Elite Barbed Rippers began aggressively snorting and swinging their massive heads towards the sounds of combat in the distance. It was almost as if they were sniffing the air to see which group was the closest.
“By the Dark,” Ara snarled angrily as she stood up to glare at the flashes of light, “those idiots are making another try to push the region’s level up another notch!”
‘They’re close,’ Fiona said as her golden eyes scanned the trees on the opposite side of the raid from where the Elite Barbed Rippers were getting worked up.
“Not necessarily,” Vulmon Bryroris, the Frost mage Assault Leader, spoke up for the first time that Jodi had ever heard, as he spoke with an exceedingly precise pronunciation, “this sounds more like a focused assault than simply killing everything in the region.”
“What’s going on?” Tumms curiously asked in a low voice at the look of consternation on Jodi’s face as she stood up and nocked an arrow in her bow, while the conversation between the NPCs carried on around them.
“Besides that,” Vulmon continued in a disdainful tone as he cocked his head thoughtfully to the side, “I honestly doubt those fools would have the levels or the numbers to pull something like that off even if they wanted to.”
‘You have to find them now!’ Jodi urgently sent to Fiona. As the Blink Lynx disappeared in a pop of displaced air, she blurted out in raid chat, “They’re tracking us with Stealth Rogues.”
For a split-second, everyone in the raid froze as they turned to look in the direction that she was facing while her Blink Lynx began to urgently search high and low for the Stealthed enemies. Instead of outright dismissing her concern due to her lower-level or the animosity many of the NPCs currently felt towards the newfar within their midst, Jodi saw the light go off in the Assault Leaders’ eyes as they all made the connection.
“That’s how they’re tracking our exact location,” Bialaer said, popping his palm against his forehead at the sudden epiphany.
“What would that help,” Vulmon irritably asked as he looked around at his co-leaders, “it’s not like they can challenge us even without our zombies.”
“They’re going to run a train on us,” a wide-eyed Grody exclaimed shooting to her clawed feet, “Multiple trains!”
Jodi got it immediately. She was just turning to Elandorr to explain what Grody meant, when she heard Fiona’s excited exclamation ring in her head, ‘Got you!’
“Gah, get it off of me!” A naked Light Elf shrieked as he popped out of Stealth with a roaring Blink Lynx clinging to his back. As everyone looked over at the commotion, the male dropped the bow in his hands to fight off his attacker just as four more naked bow-wielding Rogues popped out of Stealth with their arrows nocked and drawn. Jodi swore as everything happened in slow motion. As Fiona’s jaws tore into her target’s throat, she released her arrow and triggered Multi-Shot just as the four Light Elves released their volley. Not at any of the players or NPCs standing around her, Jodi realized in abject horror as her four arrows thudded into the Rogue’s chest center mass, but at the Elite Barbed Rippers behind her.
“Drop to the ground!” Elandorr shouted in raid chat, as animalistic bellows of pure rage rang out across the clearing.
Jodi didn’t even think to question the command from the NPC as she saw the Ranger drop to the ground in front of her. Mentally crying out to Fiona to ‘Find cover!’, she threw herself behind the thick tree trunk she’d been hiding next to earlier as a warbling-shrill cry filled the air. All around her, the NPCs of the raid were dropping to the ground as the ex-military members of Zeppy’s Heroes and Tumms followed suit just as a look of absolute horror came to the five Rogue’s faces. That split-second warning was all that she had before the air was filled with a whipping buzzing sound as the forest exploded above her head.
That wasn’t the only thing that exploded, Jodi savagely thought, as she looked up to see the tail end of the Rogues being shredded by the brutal storm of barbs that were between one to six-yards-long. While they were “good kills”, it left the rest of them with a herd of pissed off Elite Barbed Rippers to contend with. Ignoring the shredded wood and broken branches that were still raining down around her, Jodi leaped to her feet and drew another arrow from her quiver as the rest of the players around her began doing the same.
“Hee-yyyaaa!” the shout from Ara and the three other Warriors that had been defending the raid drew Jodi’s eyes as she saw them blur across the distance to meet the massive monsters head-on. The clash of metal against bone-tusks rang out across the clearing as the NPCs cried out “Unmovable Fortress!” To Jodi’s shocked surprise, the Elite Barbed Rippers stopped as if they’d hit a brick wall.
‘Piercing Shot’ Jodi mentally triggered her special attack at the lead bull. As the Old Bull leading the group squealed in rage as her arrow pierced its forehead, she was already reaching for another arrow as volleys began coming in from the rest of the NPC Rangers around her. The players and NPCs began sending in whatever ranged attacks that they had, while her second Piercing Shot slammed home, she heard Elandorr’s voice crack like a whip over raid chat.
“All House of Kayden troopers’ rearguards will target the Level 58 Sow while everyone else targets the Lead Boar with Enhanced Shadow Bolts on my command!” Jodi didn’t know what Elandorr was up to but the monsters’ barbs were already half-grown back on the immense beasts. All across the raid, the NPCs were scrambling to get into position for their designated targets. She saw the same confused looks on the players’ faces, when the Rogue roared, “Cast!”
The players to either side of Jodi froze in shock as all of the NPCs in the clearing, except for the four Warriors tanking the massive beasts, held up glowing purple-black fists of crackling Dark magic and blasted the Elite Barbed Rippers. To all of their surprise, it wasn’t just fifty-six bolts that suddenly shot across the gap in one cohesive strike at the two monsters either. It was a total of ninety-six Enhanced Shadow Bolts as the forty Rogues that had been guarding the raid popped out of Stealth from the rear and sides of the monsters.
The purple-black glow of the bolts was so intense that Jodi’s eyes switched out of Darkvision mode just as the bolts slammed into the two highest-level Elite Barbed Rippers. In that moment of blindness, she heard the immense beasts’ death cries ring out across the clearing as a double thud reverberated through her booted feet. By the time her Darkvision came back, all that Jodi could see of the devastating magic attack was the residual Dark magic still consuming the flesh on the front-halves of both boars.
One look at the shocked faces around her and Jodi knew she wasn’t the only one that was utterly confused by what she’d just witnessed. Like her, all the players knew that, except for the four Frost mages, all of these NPCs were Warrior, Ranger, and Rogue Classes, not casters. Not only that, as Jodi quickly called up
the raid’s damage meter, she quickly realized that the NPC Rogues must have triggered their Sneak Attacks along with their spells since some of the damage output she was seeing was through the roof. She didn’t even know that using a spell for Sneak Attacks was even possible!
Those were the thoughts that kept repeating through Jodi’s mind as Ara threw herself in front of the younger boar’s charge. Somehow, the Warrior woman managed to catch the monster halfway to Elandorr on her Iron-Reinforced Shield. As the female Warrior’s legs dug rivulets into the frozen earth from the impact, the Rogue’s voice was already calling out the next strike on the Level 57 Sow.
This time Jodi covered her eyes when the NPC called out “Cast!” Waiting a half-moment, she looked back in time to see the corruption eat into the Level 57 Elite Barbed Ripper’s face as if its armor hadn’t nearly grown completely back. With an agonized cry, the enormous sow collapsed to the ground leaving the young boars to fend for themselves. As the pair’s barbs began to flare out in what Jodi could only assume was the position they took before being shot out, Elandorr had the NPCs of the raid take them down in another brilliant purple-black flare of Dark magic.
“What the fuck are these guys?” Zeppy asked in a low voice as he stepped up in-between Jodi and Tumms with a wide-eyed Grody at his side.
“And how did Startum come up with them?” Grody added, running a clawed hand through her stringy-black hair.
“Hell, I didn’t even know NPCs could multiclass,” Jodi said, keeping her voice low enough not to be heard as she surveyed the NPCs around them, “Maybe we’re just playing out of our league.”