by Jason Cheek
Not that the entire run was without problems. A few times, the ground erupted with huge swaths of Earth Spikes, storms of Flame, or barrages of Air Blades that tore into us at range, but our layered shields stopped the worst of the attacks. A quick cast of Enhanced Mage Armor backed up by a Bone Shield with an added Holy Shield from Yun who was riding behind us and we were good to go. Besides that, after sending a massed volley of Guided Bolt of Zap to hammer into the various groups of Shamans, the Guardians would follow up with a cast of Healing Breeze to heal any damage that managed to get through our magic shields and armor.
Though, roughly thirty seconds after combat had started, Helgath leaped into my arms to take up her place in front of me on Neysa’s back just as we broke free of the horde’s bloody ranks and began racing back towards the lines of Dragoons as they hit the Orcs with a third round of Zombie Hands spells to lock them down while we escaped. While the root spell only lasted five seconds for the Orcs that had been being held in place up till now, it effectively stopped the rest of the horde from immediately chasing after us in pursuit. That was because only three consecutive root spells could be used back-to-back to lock down a target with reduced effects. Though, any new Orcs that entered the range of the root’s AOE would be vulnerable to the entire time length of the spell.
Not that there was much in the way of pursuit from the Orcs that had been locked down up until now. Those that the charge hadn’t reached were being hammered at range with Amplify Damage and Enhanced Shadow Bolt spells from the defensive line of Dragoons. A surprisingly effective combination when used with Zombie Hands. While any Orc stragglers dumb enough to contest our exit were summarily cut down by blades, spells, and arrows.
Before we’d covered half of the distance to the Dragoon’s lines, I heard General Dell’s voice ringing out in raid chat for the troopers to mount up by the numbers. By the time we’d nearly reached the defensive line, the entire force was mounting up. I saw Rani watching our tactical withdraw like a hawk as she took note of the smooth timing in our strategy. Her face seemed to cloud over at the bellow of impotent anger behind us as the Zombie Hands spell that had been holding back the Orcs dissipated. Howling like vengeful banshees, the horde surged after us in an enraged mass as the entire raid began galloping away together.
As we made for the path leading out of the Valley of Stones, my friends joked around about the last fight as they proudly discussed some of their cooler kills. Hefe was the most animated out of the group as he hopped up and down to mime his moves as Bonnie Smash kept a hand on him so he didn’t fall off. Though, the Uten Syn guild was the loudest as they went on and on about the awesomeness of their takedowns. Not that I blamed them. The Druids Werebear battle forms were unreal in close melee combat, and the Guardians had taken out whole groups of Shamans with their auto-homing spells.
I couldn’t help the smile that came to my lips while I listened in with half of an ear at a few of the wilder stories as I refreshed all of the buffs on Neysa, Helgath, and myself. Accepting a strip of smoked meat from Helgath, I silently followed one of Matt and Terra Cobra’s wilder stories as Thomas and Kenzie argued that it was really their kill. The four of them going at it was nearly as entertaining to watch as Hefe in-between their shit-talking and vivacious depiction of their actions during the battle.
To my surprise, the smoked meat did more than fill the gnawing hole of my stomach. It also removed a slight debuff that had been flashing in my HUD from hunger. I’d unconsciously missed the warning with the constant riding and fighting that we’d been doing. While the snack wouldn’t replace having a true meal, it would help to keep my Endurance up for the coming battle.
As we galloped on, Helgath shared a few larger chunks of meat with Neysa, before accepting a pull from my waterskin. It was nice to hear everyone getting along, I silently thought, as Sarka and Tinyr went into a lively story about a particularly difficult takedown that they’d managed with Yun’s help. Even Neri and Fylreh were in a deep discussion with Unalia about how they’d managed to keep her out of the advancing Orc clutches while they discussed ways to stop that from happening in the future.
My laxed thoughts suddenly came back into focus as soon as I noticed that General Dell had reached the base of the five-to-six-hundred-yard path that led up out of the valley. It was a mostly straight run that started out around seventy-yards wide at the base, but quickly narrowed to around sixty or so yards a tenth of the way up. Not that you could see much beyond that sixty-yard point. That was supposedly because the trail’s incline went from a steep forty-five-degree angle to around twenty to twenty-five until it gradually reached sea level, which was approximately where the defensive stone spikes and other traps started. If Domenic’s map was marked correctly, two hundred or so yards past that point was where the main defensive line had been set up for the coming fight.
Glancing back the way that we’d come, I saw the horde was still hot on our heels. We’d been doing our best to keep them at around three to four hundred yards or so back. Close enough to keep them in hot pursuit but far enough back to not catch us by a surprised rush. Even so, you would’ve thought that the few hundred of their numbers that we’d just slaughtered without taking any deaths of our own would’ve at least made them think twice about chasing after us, but no, that wasn’t the case. If anything, the deaths just seemed to enrage them all that much more. Putting away my waterskin, I cracked my shoulders and readjusted my position on Neysa’s back.
“Alrighty people, this is it,” I called out in raid chat, talking over everyone’s chatter just as we reached the base of the slope, “we either stop them here or we win the title of Bantha fodder!”
“God Jay, you’re such a geek,” Jill complained as the rest of my gaming friends laughed.
“Weren’t you the one who earned that award back in Star Wars Battlefront?” Hefe asked in confusion.
“That wasn’t an invitation to open your mouth Hefe,” Jill said, rolling her eyes at the interruption.
“That wasn’t the point, Jeff,” Krystal added as Hefe flipped her off.
“I just hope Dom was able to get the defenses set up in time,” AJ said, ignoring the others antics, “You know speed on the buildup is not exactly his forte.”
I stifled a laugh. We all knew how slow Domenic was on building base defenses. Whether he realized it or not, the only reason he hadn’t been completely overwhelmed by the Chaos Storm Alliance was that he’d had the luck to be at the furthest point of the Isolde Line. Without that, he never would’ve lasted as long as he had.
“He does have a bunch of Dwarves under him,” I said with a shrug. Seeing the looks my gaming friends were giving me, a smile curved up the corners of my mouth as I added. “I also had my companions riding roughshod over him. From their feedback before the last charge, it sounded like they mostly got everything set up the way I wanted.”
“Ha,” Hefe said, letting out a bark of laughter, “I bet that went over well.”
“About as good as it’ll go when he sees that V-MMORG Admin is with us,” AJ added in an amused tone, as he held up a coin pouch, “Any bets on if he attacks her on sight or not?”
“Oh, you can count me in on that bet,” Kenzie excitedly said, flicking her reins to catch up to the Dwarf Warrior, “What kind of odds are you giving?”
“Just make sure you keep an eye on your maps so you don’t hit any traps,” I said in exasperation, as I opened up my Character Sheet and found the tab that I needed to push out the two new spells that I had available.
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 yard radius of the shadowy shaft’s entire 100-yard path. Requires Dark Magic level 45. Range 100 yards.
Life Tap Curse (100 Mana) – Instant Cast – When cast on an enemy, the AOE continuously affects all enemies within a five-yard radius of the original target. The caster or any allies that attack the affected enemies gain 50% of all phys
ical damage dealt back as life. Requires Dark magic level 45. Range 100 yards. Expires after 10 seconds.
With a thought, I offered up both to all of my friends and allies in the raid, “And make sure you accept the new spells.”
“Got it,” Krishna confirmed a second later. Though interested in the back and forth between my friends and the Devil Dogs, one look at the Uten Syn guildmembers’ faces and it was obvious that they had no experience with placing bets.
“We’re good here,” Thomas confirmed, before going back to whatever he was discussing with AJ.
“It’s still a suck ass AOE,” Jill dismissively said, “but I’ve got it.”
“What-the-fuck-ever Jill,” I said, giving her the finger as she laughed and went back to talking with Kenzie and Krystal.
Not that I particularly blamed my friends for the lackadaisical attitude they had for the two new spells. Neither seemed particularly outstanding upon first glance. While everyone loved health leeching type spells, we’d found out earlier that only one type of curse could be active at any one time. That made it a tough call on taking anything else other than Amplify Damage. As far as the AOE went, we’d see what they thought about the spell once they saw it in action.
Not bothering to listen in further as AJ played bookie, I kept my eyes peeled as we headed up the slope. Surprisingly enough, a forty-five-degree angle was very different to take on the back of a mount than in a car. I’m sure that having an actual saddle would’ve helped things immensely, I silently thought, leaning forward to grip Neysa’s flanks tighter with my thighs. Not that there was much else I could do while riding bareback.
Glancing back down the slope, a grim smile came to my lips. Lance Leader Warf had seriously outdone himself on this suggestion. We honestly couldn’t have asked for a more perfect spot for an ambush than this, I considered, eyeing the funnel like shape. If you’ve ever tried running up a steep hill, think of how far you managed to get before you were a sweaty mess. Now, imagine adding on a ton of armor, a solid bronze shield, and a two-handed blade. Picture how fast and far it would take you to get up that same slope now? That was exactly my point.
While the Orcs’ physique was obviously very different than that of an Earthly Human’s, physics was still physics. Castles and defensive fortifications have been placed on the top of steep hills and mountains since the beginning of time for a reason. All that I could do now was hope that the steep terrain would cause the horde some troubles with charging into a fight. Hell, even if it only stopped them from bum-rushing us once they were within a hundred yards, I’d call that a win and be happy with it, because at this point, we needed every advantage that we could get for the shitstorm headed our way.
As we cleared the hump sixty-yards up, Neysa stepped to the side and came to a stop at my wordless thought as the rest of the trail suddenly came into view along with all of the defenses that had been constructed. Behind me, Fylreh and Neristhana stopped their quiet conversation as they joined me in surveying the impressive construction that Domenic and my companions had managed to complete in such a short amount of time.
Approximately fifty yards ahead, a field of chest-high stone spikes had been magicked into existence. They went all the way up to the base of a low defensive wall that cut across the entire trail at approximately waist height around what looked to be three times that length away. So, nearly something like a hundred and fifty to two-hundred yards away.
I grinned at my loose mathematics. Since my spells typically had a range of either sixty to a hundred yards, I’d gotten used to judging distances by mentally picturing half and whole football field lengths. What can I say? Visualizing something that I was regularly used to seeing helped me effectively guestimate range distances within The World. Behind me, I heard Fylreh’s mutter of approval as she pointed out the field of stone spikes.
There was a large clearing where our forces were forming up, right before where another series of defensive fortifications started. Those continued the rest of the way up the slope as I’d requested. Though, from the look of things, it looked like they hadn’t been completely finished. I’m sure Domenic hadn’t made those a priority, which was for the best. I’d pushed to have those constructed as a just in case. Aka just in case we needed to fallback while under assault or, if the horde’s leader had planned ahead and sent a force to cut off our escape from the Valley of Stone.
While that might be doubtful, I’d learned after many years of playing real-time strategy games that it was best to plan ahead if you had the time and resources. Expecting the unexpected was a good way to save yourself a lot of heartache. And, while this bottleneck was an amazing natural strongpoint for what I had in mind, it could just as easily be turned into the perfect trap by a savvy leader that knew the terrain.
My eyes swept back to the column of Dragoons as they split up to head up the slope by using the far sides of the trail. Doing a quick double-check of the map, I saw that those were the only paths up that were marked as being clear of obstructions and traps. It was a smart call by General Dell. That decision alone would reduce much of the slowdown caused by cramming so many cavalry troopers into such small lanes, besides helping everyone reach the defensive positions that much quicker. Which was much needed, I nervously thought, glancing back at the mass of Orcs that were rapidly closing the distance between us with a vengeance.
‘You worry too much,’ Neysa chided, interrupting my contemplation with a mental growl, ‘there’s no doubt in my mind that we’ll tear these Chofe-ka limb-from-limb for daring to stalk us.’
‘That’s the plan,’ I wryly thought, not feeling so hopeful.
I’d thrown everything that I could think of at these bastards throughout the day and, so far, nothing had worked. While we hadn’t lost any of our people during the fighting, these mother fuckers hadn’t even blinked at the ass-kicking that we’d been handing them hour after hour. Whether I wanted to admit it or not, the unstoppable nature of the horde was starting to throw me off my game somewhat. I’d gone through plan A, B, C, and D to no effect.
Now we were on plan E. If this didn’t work, we were rightly fucked. Not to say that I didn’t have a plan F, G, and H, but all of those really sucked. I didn’t even want to consider how bad things would’ve gotten if we were down to them.
‘I thought you were the best of the best,’ Helgath’s snarky words sounded in my head, instantly cutting through the fear and anxiety that I was feeling, ‘and death, the destroyer of worlds.’
‘I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds,’ I mentally repeated, before throwing my head back and letting out a raucous laugh at the obscure Oppenheimer quote that my soulmate had somehow dug up from out of my subconscious mind. It was an old saying that I used to use when I was struggling to conquer one of my virtual worlds when I’d first started out gaming.
The wicked laugh instantly caught Fylreh and Neristhana by surprise. I heard the Centaur’s hoof stomp on the rocky trail in annoyance as her ears flattened and her tail agitatedly swished from side-to-side. Neristhana’s response wasn’t much different in its own right. Her ears were nearly as mobile as the Centaur’s and easily flattened against her skull. Even though they both gave me “the look,” I could tell a part of them were relieved at my good mood.
For some reason, those words seemed to rip away the mental fugue that had unknowingly been weighing down my soul. The problem was that I wasn’t used to being so effectively countered and forced to constantly retreat. At least, not since I first started gaming as a young boy so many years ago. That simple phrase from my past hit me like a mental reset. A part of me couldn’t get over how Helgath had somehow known the perfect words to say to get me back on my game. Slipping an arm around her waist, I hugged her tightly to my chest while giving Neysa a clap on the flank as I felt my cocky “Raid Leader” persona fall into place around my shoulders.
“Let’s go show these assholes that they fucked with the wrong people,” I said out loud, as I sat up straight on Neysa’s b
ack. I felt Helgath’s toothy smile through our shared link as the Silver Dire Wolf threw her head back and let out a challenging howl that echoed off the granite walls of the pass, while both Fylreh and Neristhana excitedly grinned like fiends. Without needing to say another word, we took off at a gallop, heading up the slope for the defensive fortifications in the distance as the rest of my friends looked at us in surprise.
Attitude made all the difference, I silently thought as we circled around the field of traps. Seeing a group animatedly arguing near the center of the defensive wall, I signaled for Neysa to head there as we began traveling down the length of the inner wall where all of the Dwarves, Dragoons, and the House of Kayden troopers were drawn up. It somewhat surprised me to see the Dwarves in the front standing ready with their crossbows and slings held at the ready.
My companions had organized the Dragoons as I’d requested. There was what looked to be a line of fifty Dragoons standing in a loose formation behind the Dwarves who were pressed shoulder-to-shoulder. While there was a double line of Dwarves, the Dragoon’s ranks were twenty ranks deep, which were even now being increased by an additional four ranks as the Dragoons in training quickly took up a position behind the rearmost ranks.
About ninety yards behind those troopers, the lower-level House of Kayden troopers had been lined up further up the slope, close to where the field of stone spikes once again started up. The defensive line was a hundred troopers wide and eight ranks deep. They were all that was leftover of the original level thirty-five to thirty-eight Swordsmen and Swordswomen that we’d been slowly upgrading to level 45 Dragoons.