by Jason Cheek
“Mount up by the numbers!” The order cascaded down the lines as Sub-Leaders, Team-Leaders, and Squad-Leaders repeated the command to the troopers under them.
“First group recall your mounts!” General Dell’s voice boomed as his order was again repeated down the line.
Even though this was a relatively new trick that the Orcs had started using to catch our latest batches of Dragoons in training off guard, the House of Kayden Troopers under General Dell’s experienced hands responded with smooth professionalism, having already been warned of the tactic ahead of time. Immediately, half of the Dragoons began pulling out their whistles to recall their mounts while the other half focused on sending volley after volley of purplish-black bolts streaking into the advancing Orcs. As the front ranks of the Orcs collapsed from the barrage of necrotic energy consuming their flesh, General Dell’s voice rang out again as soon as the horses of Palnisdale appeared.
“Second group recall your mounts!”
Immediately, the two groups changed positions with the first group taking over covering volleys as the second group began calling their mounts. Even as the Orc sprinters pushed to within twenty yards of the Dragoons lines, the troopers kept their cool and followed orders. Even though this was all relatively brand-new tactics for the men and women sworn to me, they’d quickly learned the day before that working together was the only way we were going to get through this mess. General Dell let a full volley be released from both groups to clear the immediate field as much as possible, before his voice rang out again in raid chat.
“Mount up!” As the command cascaded down the lines, the troopers hurriedly began climbing into their saddles as the surviving Orcs drove themselves hard to close the distance to their elusive prey.
The vanguard knew by now that this was the only chance they would have to catch the horsemen without being under constant bombardment which was why the Orcs were driving forward with everything that they had. While the ranged assault had initially been easy for our troopers to shrug off due to their intact Bone Shield, Holy Shield, and Enhanced Mage Armor buffs, the intensity of the heavy stones being chucked at them had now nearly quadrupled in number and were quickly stripping away their layered protections as the trooper’s magic shields began to flare under the strain. Seeing a handful of unlucky troopers begin taking serious damage from their shields completely going down, I began hitting them with Holy Shields as the Uten Syn Guardians around me began refreshing the troopers’ Enhanced Mage Armor while others began casting Healing Breeze.
“Ride!” General Dell shouted, thrusting his sword into the air as the House of Kayden Dragoons swung their mounts around and took off at a gallop for the safety of our secondary defensive lines ninety yards away.
“Alright everyone,” I said in raid chat as the Squad Leaders kept their troopers spread out as they raced towards us, “let’s give them covering fire.”
“You know Star,” Kenzie said in an annoyed tone as she cast an Amplify Damage spell before switching over to blasting the Orcs that came into maximum range with Enhanced Shadow Bolts, “we wouldn’t have to keep dealing with this shit if you’d stop swapping out our trained Dragoons with a bunch of newbies once they hit level 45!”
“If I did that,” I growled in raid chat, as I kept casting Holy Shields on the withdrawing troopers along with Krystal and Thompson’s help, while the Devil Dogs and the Uten Syn guilds, and the rest of my friends joined in on the barrage with their own Amplify Damage and Enhanced Shadow Bolts spells, “there’d be no chance for us to push these assholes back and make camp for the night.”
“Ha, right! It’s not as if your Dark magic has any powerhouse-level AOE’s that’s going to let us fry these assholes and make them think twice about fucking with us,” Jill mockingly said as she continuously blasted at the charging Orcs who had nearly caught up to the fleeing Dragoons, “Just admit it Jay, you screwed the pooch on this one.”
“I don’t care what your Lance Leader Warf said,” Kenzie said, not bothering to look at me as she continued blasting away at the advancing horde. “You know as well as I do that we’re going to be stuck playing straight through for the next forty-eight hours, because there’s no way we’re going to be able to slaughter enough of these assholes to force them to break off for the night.”
“Star, I’m going to have to defer to the ladies on this one,” Thomas politically said as his mount restlessly flicked its tail and shuffled its hooves while General Dell and his Dragoons thundered towards us, “this Valley of Stone has been a life saver in stopping the Orcs from being able to circle around us. Holding the exit is going to take everything we have even with the zombies taking the brunt of the assault.”
“Come about and give covering fire!” General Dell’s voice rang out as the Dragoons passed between our ranks. Trotting to a stop, the troopers circled back around to come up behind us, adding the weight of their ranged magic with that of our own. Well, those that still had any mana left did. It worked out well for them since the rest of us were now the target of the Orcs barrage of stones.
“Keep your eyes out for any Shamans,” I said, reminding everyone that had a high-enough level of Nature magic or, in Fylreh’s case, archery skills to target those assholes and take them down. A somewhat difficult feat with the hail of stones raining down around us.
“I still don’t know why you’re so adamant for all of us to level up Dark magic to level 45 when our Nature magic has so much more range,” Krishna grumbled from where he stood with Phoenix, Lyeneru, Angie, and Gaelin, “Can we at least use our Nature magic for taking those assholes down?”
“Of course, you can,” I distractedly said as my eyes searched the mass of incoming Orcs for the telltale tattoos, bones, and screaming skulls of a Shaman. We had to take as many of those assholes as possible down now or they could possibly screw up the trap that the rest of the raid was busy setting up. “Hell, once your Dark magic skill reaches level 45 you can use whatever spells you fucking want.”
“I just don’t understand what’s so important about getting up to level 45,” Angie resentfully muttered under her breath loud enough for everyone to hear.
“That’s because he has some plan,” AJ said making air quotes, “that he’s not sharing with the rest of us.”
“Shamans, there,” Helgath’s voice suddenly sounded in raid chat. Standing on Neysa’s rump behind my back, she pointed over my head towards the rear-middle of the advancing Orcs.
“I see them,” Fylreh exclaimed as she whipped up her bow and sent a Barrage of Death at the group.
“Lock them down and target off of Fylreh or Helgath,” I shouted, immediately beginning the three second cast of Zombie Hands as the rest of my friends followed suit.
Like clockwork, a cascading ripple ran through the rocky frozen ground as zombified clawed hands suddenly shot up out of the earth in a five-yard swatch across the front of the advancing horde. Ignoring the enraged looks on the Orc faces not thirty-yards away, I targeted the lead Earth Shaman in the group that had been trying to sneak up close enough to lock us down, when Neri hit them with an Amplify Damage spell. As he struggled to finish casting whatever spell that he’d been about to release, I sent a flurry of Homing Zaps at him just as the Uten Syn players released a volley of Guided Bolt of Zap.
The Guided Bolt of Zap was the upgrade to my weaker version of Homing Zap. Besides looking like a glowing white bolt of energy fired from a Blaster, the spell had an even better ability to be guided onto the target. From what Krishna had told me about the spell, the caster could let it home onto the enemy automatically like that of Homing Zap or actually guide the shot in with their eyes and mind, making the spell nearly impossible to dodge. As if to prove that point, the volley of bolts flew over the tops of the Orcs’ heads, before suddenly curving sharply down to blast the Shamans in the head from behind.
Unfortunately, the Earth Shamans didn’t go down before releasing their own spells as a swath of Earth Spikes blasted from the ground bene
ath our mounts. Neysa growled in annoyance as she rode the sharpened stone points with her magic shields to stop from being pierced through the flanks, while I shattered the stone shafts that targeted me with my Black Coral Iron-reinforced Defender and the Dark Blade of Lord Kayden. To either side of us, I heard the horses of Palnisdale whinnying in pain as many of my friends were thrown to the ground from their rearing mounts, while the Druids who were standing on their own two feet were knocked around as they dodged the earth spikes using a tactic similar to Neysa’s.
Even so, it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been. The Orcs were still locked down by the Zombie Hands spells that we’d managed to get off and their advance was forcibly stopped for fifteen seconds. In some of our past battles where the Orcs weren’t hemmed in like they now were in the Valley of Stone, we would’ve been in danger of being encircled by the Orcs further back, that weren’t locked down. Except for the Earth Spikes being somewhat painful and annoying, it wasn’t much worse than that since our remaining magic shields had blunted the brunt of the attack. As the Uten Syn Guardians and Druids began casting Healing Breeze over the raid, my voice rang out in raid chat, before the Zombie Hands spell could expire.
“Let’s fall back people!” I felt Helgath’s long fingers grip my shoulders from where she easily balanced behind me as Neysa began trotting away from the rooted Orcs. Immediately, Fylreh and Neri followed, taking up a protective position to either side of us as I continued giving orders. “Same plan as usual. General Dell, let us know when the troopers are back to full mana.”
Immediately, I began refreshing the Holy Shields of those around me as my eyes swept over my friends who were swinging their mounts around to gallop after us while the Druids transformed to follow in their Umbra Hunter forms. After ten hours of nearly constant charges intermixed with repeated fall backs, we were now all expert riders and could effectively fight and cast from the saddle without any negative effects or restrictions, besides being quite adapt at responding to the horde’s bag of tricks. While we’d taken a few bloody hits from their tactical counters, for the most part, we’d been able to stay ahead of the learning curve while making the enemy pay through the nose.
A good thing to since all of this would’ve been impossible without having access to the mounts that I had my people purchase earlier that morning in Palnisdale. It was a lucky happenstance of fate that my friends were busy learning how to ride when I logged in. Otherwise, I would’ve never thought to expend most of my wealth on acquiring the beginnings of a mounted force, especially not while dealing with everything else that needed doing, before fleeing ahead of the approaching horde.
Without these mounts, we would never have kept ahead of the Orc vanguard. Let alone, managed to whittle down their forces as much as we had. That, or to individually level up our force as much as we’d managed to do. So far, that included getting all of my friends with mounts or the ability to fast-travel up to the high forties and turn a thousand of my troopers into level 45 Dragoons with enough riding experience to get them into range to attack an enemy and fall back before being caught by the counter attack.
All of which were impressive accomplishments, even if Domenic and my other friends that had been helping him during the siege were pissed about missing out on all of the fighting. It was kind of funny in one way. While it was true that getting the level-ups was sweet as hell, at the same time, I could see the signs of exhaustion on everyone’s faces. Even with having a full complement of two hundred plus Dragoons riding with us instead of the usual hundred, the constant rotation of lower-level troopers that I kept pushing to get trained up throughout the day along with the hours of constant fighting had taken its toll.
Either this last trick up my sleeve would work or we were going to be hard pressed not to fold under the horde’s overwhelming numbers, I thought, sighing tiredly as I refreshed my magic shields.
As Neysa sped up into a gallop to catch up to the rear of the cavalry formation, I heard her mentally swear at the difficult terrain. It was dangerous footing that could break a mounts or trooper’s leg readily enough if a leg was to get caught in one of the many crevices or holes that marred the landscape. The only positive thing we had going for us was that the small groups of high-level monsters had decided to not attack such a large group.
The Valley of Stone here was exceptionally narrow due to a large rockslide that blocked three-quarters of the valley. Not that it was particularly wide in the first place at two-hundred and thirty yards, especially not as we neared the exit. Though, the avalanche must have been more a part of the entire cliff face collapsing, because the edges of the valley were still steep as ever. Not that I was complaining. It was exactly as Lance Leader Warf had described, and only accessible by the trails in and out on either end of the valley. Exactly what we needed to hold the horde back long enough for everyone to rest up for the night.
“Hold the fuck up already Jay,” Jill shouted as she sent her horse galloping after me. As the column of mounts began splashing through the icy stream that meandered through the center of the rocky valley, she caught up to me, “I want to know what the hell this AOE spell is that you’re hiding from the rest of us!”
“Fuck that,” Kenzie said where she galloped beside Jill, “I want to know what this incredible plan is?”
“Good luck with getting that info,” AJ said, letting out a mocking bark of laughter, “I think that’s because he’s making it up as he goes.”
“Yeah,” Krystal called out from where she rode next to AJ, “Jay isn’t known for sharing out details if you’re not in the need to know.”
“That’s only because he doesn’t want to be embarrassed if things don’t work out the way he planned,” Hefe chimed in as Bonnie Smash bopped him on the head, “Ouch, why did you hit me Pookybear?”
“What do you mean he doesn’t like sharing out details?” Kenzie asked in an offended tone.
“OPSEC,” Thomas asked in confusion as he traded glances with the rest of the Devil Dogs.
“OP SEC?” Sarka asked Thompson in a low voice.
“Operations security,” Thompson whispered back. Seeing the confusion just grow on her face, he hurriedly explained, “Not blabbing plans where the enemy might hear.”
“Smart decision,” Helgath suddenly said, her deeper voice catching everyone off-guard as her yellow cat-eyes swept the group, “Air Shamans can easily listen in on enemy conversations over great distances and is a normal Orc tactic to get information on their prey’s plans.”
‘You know that’s not the reason why I’m not telling them,’ I thought back with a mental chuckle.
‘They don’t need to know that, and besides,’ Helgath sent back as her pointy teeth momentarily peeked from between her dark-green lips, ‘it’s nonetheless true.’
“Prey’s plans?” Matt Cobra nervously asked, confused at Helgath’s odd choice of words.
“Yes, food,” Helgath stated in a clear voice. Though she no longer sounded like an immature child whenever she now spoke, the changes to her Charisma stat hadn’t really done anything else to alter her physical appearance. I didn’t know if that was due to the severe abuse that she’d endured while growing up as a slave or not, but it made me wonder what it would take to repair the damage that had been done to her body as she continued in a cold tone, “Grug means food and is one of the three ways Orc’s view non-Orcs.”
“Isn’t grug what they keep chanting at us?” Thompson nervously asked the group as he suddenly made the connection.
“What’s the other two ways they look at non-Orcs,” Terry Cobra asked, her analytical mind curious in spite of itself at the odd discussion.
“Yes,” Helgath said, her cat-eyes momentarily focusing on Thompson before turning to Terry, “You are either zuk which stands for slave or yani which means sex slave.”
“I thought every slave was a sex slave to Orcs,” Zhou said, her voice rough with emotion at what she was hearing.
“True,” Helgath agreed as her blazing
cat-eyes turned to the female Devil Dog Rogue, “but yani is far worse.”
“Umm, can we get back on topic,” Jill asked in annoyance, making it obvious she was done with the creepy-ass discussion, “What is this AOE spell you’re holding back on us, Jay and why aren’t we using it now?”
“Because it’s all part of my planned surprise,” I said with a tired sigh. Seeing Neristhana cock her head in my direction after glancing around at the annoyed faces around us, I gave the Gnomeling an indifferent shrug before continuing, “Look, the only way we’re going to make these assholes take a step the fuck back is by hitting them so hard that they don’t know what the fuck happened to them.”
“This spell had better be fucking amazing Jay,” Jill sarcastically said, rolling her eyes at my little spiel.
“Like make your bed and cook you breakfast in the morning amazing,” Thomas said with a laugh as all eyes turned to meaningfully look at me.
“Here it is,” I said in exasperation, posting the information for the spell in raid chat as the valley opened up again, “Are you happy now?”
Dark Lance (160 Mana) – Instant cast – Launches a shadowy shaft of Dark Magic in a direct line that does 800% of Spell Power to all targets within a half-yard radius of the shadowy shaft’s entire 100-yard path. Requires Dark Magic level 45. Range 100 yards. *Does half-damage in full-sunlight.
“What the fuck is that?” Kenzie sputtered out incredulously.
“Is that your amazing AOE spell that’s going to save all of our asses,” Jill demanded as she looked at me in total shock, “because my level 15 Pyroblast does twice the amount of damage as that crappy-ass spell!”