by Evan Klein
Magash Sidesplitter, Hill Ogre, Crusher, Level 10, 400 DPs. Primary Weapon, Great Ogre Axe, Level 3; Skill, Sunder Limbs; Perk: Kinetic Explosion …(more information is available if you wish to read on)
Backrack, Orc, Basher, Level 9. Weapon skills: Spike Mace, Level 3; skills, Crack a shell and bone basher.
Current bonuses: plus 3 % to physical damage; plus 4% damage points; plus 2% damage from one handed sword; plus 1% when using 2 weapons; plus 2% to bashing weapons; plus 2% to courage; plus 2 % to stamina; plus 1% to frenzy; plus 2% to damage caused by nature spells; plus thirty seconds to effect of all hexes and curses; plus 2% percent to healing spells; plus 2% magic damage
Angelica had suggested trying to max out whatever we could… so instead of separating the spell casters they would put together; the same thing with the archers. Magash and Hearn had been split up as well – to make sure that both groups gained an extra percentage or two on damage points.
“We have done all we can to prepare,” I finally said, anxious for the upcoming fighter. And still not sure what to say I repeated something I had heard earlier in the day “May the sisters protect us.”
A collective “Amen!” echoed in the forest.
“Aye, may they,” Mother tittered. “Don’t ya know?”
Chapter 12: The Burning Bush – Skelter Battle Part 1
As soon as virtual nighttime began, the skelters emerged from the cave entrance two abreast. One of the sergeants led each of the columns – one of fourteen skelters and the other fifteen. Damn! Cali’s count had been off and there were more of the monsters to fight than expected. One of sergeants fit my expectations of what an evil minion should look like: clad in black scale mail, black helm on head, banded shield in one hand and a muted grey sword held in the other. Though the exposed arms and legs were nothing but bone, they did not appear to be fragile or brittle, but tough as iron. I read his details: Skelter Sergeant, Martin the Malignant, Dark Legion, Level 15, DP 350. A long list of details about him followed but I didn’t have to read them. The second Sergeant brought terror to me. She was maybe four foot ten, thin as a rail, and appeared to be all of fourteen. She wore black leggings and vest. An assortment of cruel looking knives and daggers crisscrossed her chest and hips. I read her description: Skelter Sergeant, Gretchen the Slicer, Torturer, Level 15, DP 375. A detailed description followed of her as well.
“What the fuck was a Torturer?” I thought. However, I wouldn’t have time to figure that out right now as the Captain appeared from the cave entrance. Instead of the black armor and weapons that arrayed his forces, he was clad all in crimson, even the great sword he held nonchalantly in his right hand was the color of blood. His stats were quite impressive: Skelter Captain, Death Warrior and Mage, Level 25 / 25, Damage Points 600.
Cruelty exuded from him like a noxious gas. Fenil and Tenil who both stood by me with notched arrows loosened the pulls on their strings and took a few steps back.
“Ah good,” he said sniffing the air. His voice an ice cold wind that bites into your face and exposed skin. “The recruits have come to us.” I thought he would order his forces forward but instead he spoke. Authority in his voice. “It’s okay. Come forward. We will make you immortal. Forever and forever with no fear of death.” My Intimidation perk struggled against the power of The Whispering Death and I thought I might fall prey to it also. I wanted to go towards him. Live forever and never be lost to the void. I had almost abandoned Amber when I had my heart attack. And needed to be there for her from now on. I shook the dark thoughts from my mind.
Fenil and Tenil began to move forward as did several others of the Realmborn. Cali and Bondi seemed affected as well and they, too, took a step as well.
Mother, as though unaware or unperturbed by the imminent danger, began to sing:
Gilly the whore
Spread her legs
For Bobby the bore
Who gave her the plague
Bobby it seems
Had been with a sheep
And now poor Gilly
Is forever asleep
Mother’s bawdy ditty continued for another verse, ringing out like a klaxon, shattering the spell trying to entrance us all. The Captain’s words were still there in the background trying to lure us forward to our demise but the effect was waning.
Now the sheep it turns out
Had been with a cow
And all of the animals had seen
So now that poor sheep
Is nothing but mutton
So come everyone come, let’s eat!
I laughed at the last line. As did several other of my group. And the Captain’s spell faded away into the ether.
Fenil and Tenil were both laughing as well. “Enough,” I whispered to them. We need you now. Get those flaming arrows ready. It’s time to go.”
“How?” The Captain shouted. Then he muttered, “You old witch and your tricks. Forward, into the woods. Bring that old witch to me. Kill or capture the rest.”
“Now!” I shouted at the two archers. “Now damnit!”
The two oil casks were the size of a small watermelon. Both archers had assured me earlier they could make the shot. We had hidden the casks in some of the brush in the opening outside the cave. There was one twang of an arrow followed a moment later by a second.
I held my breath.
Time moved in slow motion.
Both arrows, now flaming, had struck their casks.
The skelters came forward.
The hollow eyes of the Captain of the skelters opened wide in surprise when the two arrows flew. He glanced over to his left to see a fletching vibrating in the side of wooden cask.
The doorway to Hell flew open.
The conflagration was both horrific and beautiful – the art of destruction. The first cask erupted next to the Captain. That had to hurt I mused.
A moment later, the other one erupted.
Mother clapped hers hands and cackled gleefully somewhere behind me.
The fire spread out like a tidal wave and lit the alcohol saturated meadow aflame. The logs and thatching we had placed around the meadow caught fire too. Flames licked out like living tendrils reaching towards the sky and towards my compatriots and me. Wood shards flew everywhere like bullets. But we were far enough away from the shock wave and heat that no one suffered any damage. At least no one I had formed the warband with.
Notifications sailed past my line of sight. So far the initial part of the plan had worked. I had hoped that a few of the weaker skelters would be destroyed in the initial assault and that experience would be granted during the battle and not after it was done. I had asked Angelica earlier if experience and levels had to be rewarded at the end of a battle but she said it was possible during a battle if someone was lucky enough to have a personal A.I. (i.e.: Angelica) like I had to take care of the allocation. Angelica informed me of the levels gained. “You gained two levels from the death of the six skelters standing near the casks. I have allocated eight points to Physical Strength and two points to Providence.” It wasn’t the best allocation of attribute points in the long run. But I needed a quick gain in at least one category so I figured why not drop them into Physical Strength. And I wasn’t sure how Providence worked, only I was a believer in luck, and we would need a ton of that if we were to survive the night.
You also gained forty more damage points.
“I will continue to tell you when the skelters fall.” I had asked Angelica to tell me when one of the skelters were killed by someone in my warband. She couldn’t tell me about the other one as she didn’t have access to that warband. Hopefully, this would give me some indication of how the battle was going.
The fires were dying out and the battle would begin. “Another one just fell Mace. Twenty one skelters, plus the bosses survived. All are wounded – some more, some less.”
They emerged from the flaming dead zone like demons from Hell and came towards us.
Even at level seven, I was still a noob. Just ab
out everyone here was higher level than me. I would try to keep myself on the fringes of the battle as much as possible and jump in wherever I could help. I would hear a saying several months later in The Great Realm about plans. Goblins make plans (yes even goblins sometimes have the wisdom to plan) and Kras-a-kak (their deity) doubles over in pain bellowing in laughter at their foolishness, then he leaps down from his throne and batters them with his morning star until they are almost dead, and then cuts off one of their finger as a reminder that making plans is pure folly.
Anyhow my plan would have worked if one of the sergeants hadn’t emerged out of the fire barely scathed. Gretchen the Damn Torturer! She patted out some flames on her clothing with her bony hands and then glared right at me. Where was Jarrell or Cali? They were supposed to take on the sergeants. From my peripheral vision I saw that Jarrell was engaged by three skelters that had gone for him. Maybe the skelters were planning to knock off the Starborn first since they posed the greatest threat.
Gretchen was four foot ten of pure terror. She wasn’t of this world (well actually she was but you get the phrase) and leapt at me from nearly fifteen feet away.
“Fuck!” I screamed, my demise looming.
I didn’t stand a chance against a fifteenth level creature. Especially one as malevolent and cruel as the one that flew towards me. Two wicked looking curved knives suddenly appeared in her hands. I summoned my shield, which had now grown due to my additional levels, and waited. My shield had gained an ability upon me reaching seventh level yet I wasn’t sure it would make any difference or how powerful it would be. She came howling at me like a banshee and when she was within a foot I thought Kinetic Push – a wave of energy, similar to what the Magash had used earlier in the day to toss Jarrell and I like rag dolls, sprang from my shield. The push did nothing to stop her momentum and Gretchen landed on the top of the shield – literally. Balancing on the upper edge of the shield like a tight rope artist, she sneered down at me and then thrust the two daggers right into my upper chest, right below my collar bones. My chain armor stopped some of the damage but not enough. My virtual nerves exploded in a torrent of agony as she pulled the two daggers out as quickly as she had thrust them in.
“She took off a third of your damage points with those strikes,” Angelica said. She was about to say more when the devil girl looked down from my shield once again preparing to strike. Her balance was amazing. “Retract,” I thought and the shield drew back to a bracer instantaneously. This caught the girl off guard, yet she still landed on the ground gracefully like a gymnast.
I couldn’t stand toe to toe with her. The only advantage I had was my bulk and my strength so I did the stupidest thing possible. I charged the diminutive beast, wrapped my arms around her, and threw her to the compact earth below, landing with my superior weight on top of her.
“Grrrrr,” she snarled, wriggling below me trying to escape. My arms wrapped tighter around her arms and body so she couldn’t wield those deadly knives. However, her mouth was free and she bit down into my exposed forearm. Pain seared through it like a roiling fire.
“You are down to half your damage points,” Angelica said, worry in her voice. I didn’t have time to respond to my online assistant. Gretchen squirmed and twisted again, loosening my grip on her. By doing so, she brought her face close to mine and was about to bite my nose off when I head-butted her. I shouldn’t have done that. I forgot that the skelters heads and torsos were reinforced. Stars flew past my eyes like bloodthirsty mosquitos. It hurt like all hell but I did it a second time, this time slamming my head into her nose. I heard the cracking of cartilage. I had certainly caused some damage to her that time.
“They was not wise,” Angelica said. You knocked damage points off yourself this time.” I wanted to retort something witty but had my hands full.
Gretchen howled again – primal and full of hate.
A crazy idea began to coalesce in my mind – dumber than head-butting her.
The petite imp calmed down.
“Let me up she said,” the power of The Whispering Death filling my mind. She had no idea that I could resist it – that her charm – is that the right term – would not impact me.
“Come and join us. You don’t ever need to know the fear of death,” she whispered, her spell trying to trap me.
“Yes,” I lied tapping into my Liar! Liar! perk. “Yes. I fear death. I want to live forever,” I responded. I deserved an award for my acting for my deception. I knew I had sold it as a smile stole over her face.
It was just a matter of time before she squirmed free of me and stabbed me to death so cunning was all I had left. I released my grip on her at once and stood up. She sprung up in a flash. I looked at her and then glanced beyond her. I had to time this perfectly.
Swords clanged, arrows twanged, spells flew, men and women screamed all about me. Gretchen smiled again. “Yes,” she said. “Why don’t you put down that nasty mace? You have no need for such things.” I nodded my head in blind obeisance, and lowered my arm and bent my waist to put the mace down.
She was just a few feet from me and the smile on her face faded when I sprinted forward like a runner from the starting position and grabbed her again. I felt one of her knives thrust into my gut but that was okay as long as lived long enough to do what needed to be done. I ran the fifteen or so feet to my left then with my high strength hurled the girl from me like a shot put. She flew about five feet. She shocked me with her next action as her momentum suddenly stopped and she hovered four feet above the air.
“Fuck!” I thought. “She can fly. Or at least float. I was so dead!”
Then two prickly vines snaked out from the Piercing Death bush and wrapped around Gretchen’s torso. This had been my hope all along…that there was still enough flesh left on the girl’s torso to interest the carnivorous plant. I glanced at the stats of the piercing death: Piercing Death, Proclivity Malevolent, Level 20, Damage Points 350. That was the first time I had seen a proclivity mentioned. The vines pulled the now writhing form of Gretchen towards its center. The knives in the girl’s hands moved in a dizzying array carving up the creepers that kept wrapping round her. When that didn’t work she tried her whispering death on the monstrosity. But while the bush was sentient I don’t think it could understand the words of the skelter. I didn’t know who was going to come out victorious but the sergeant needed to die now. I thought crossbow and felt the new weight in my hands. I launched the bolt and it struck into Gretchen. I wish I had a flaming arrow like the archers—I would set the bush and sergeant both aflame. But I didn’t, so this would have to be done the difficult way. Gretchen was powerful and her knives began to seriously damage vines trying to squeeze the life essence (or I guess death essence would more accurate) from her. The thorns of the malicious bush punctured Gretchen’s torso and face, but the toxin inside them would not paralyze the girl.
I launched one bolt and another. One struck the girl again while the other missed, disappearing into the shapeless bush.
Unexpectedly, Bondi appeared next to me. “You owe me big time. I was going to harvest the poison from that thing.” She spoke a word, aimed her hand, and several fireflies appeared from her palm. They flew towards the bush and a moment later the bush and the trapped Gretchen were aflame in a great inferno. I shot two more bolts towards the girl, one striking her right in the chest and the second one flying past her.
Her shrieks threatened to puncture my eardrums. I don’t think she was in pain; I think she saw the end of her eternity coming. There was one final scream, the bush exploded in a torrent of flames, Gretchen burning like an old witch of Salem in its midst. Seconds later, the bush and Gretchen both stopped moving.
I went to thank Bondi but she was gone.
“Providence seemed to be in play,” Angelica said.
“Sometime luck is all you got,” I responded. I removed a healing potion from my pack and downed it. In a moment the knife wounds closed and my damage points began to move towards full.
“Four more skelters plus the sergeant have fallen. Make that five more.”
I took a moment to glance around the battle field and see where I could help out. I turned just in time to see Magash chop his great axe into the side of a skelter. Two others lay dead nearby. Magash was covered in blood and he seemed to be bleeding in several places as well. Jarrell fought close by Magash, his axe now thrumming with an electric charge. Not sure what that charge was but the skelter did not like it when it cut deeply into its hip. The juxtaposition of the diminutive dwarf and the large ogre was certainly amusing. I looked about for Cali and she was locked in a heated battle with the other sergeant. Though I could not tell how it was going.
I looked towards where the Captain and Hearn were locked in battle. The Captain’s red sword meeting Blackthorn’s blade midair. I observed Hearn. Blood streamed from several cuts and gashes. He seemed to be favoring his left leg and blood gushed from the other. The captain had also been hit a number of times as well. As several large gashes and several puncture wounds pockmarked the Captain’s armor.
I knew where I was needed most and ran forward.
Chapter 13: Surprise Ending – Skelter Battle Part 2
Hearn was down to just a few dozen damage points and fought defensively. While he had definitely hurt the Captain, whose red armor had numerous slash marks and puncture wounds, he had just been unable to land that fatal blow. The Captain seemed to be favoring one of his skeletal legs as well. Hearn had been my ace in the hole so to say but the Captain was just more powerful. I glanced again at the Captain: Pseudo Skeleton Captain, Death Warrior and Mage, Level 25, Damage Points 325 / 600. Hearn had cut off nearly half of his damage points – but there was still so much more damage he could absorb.
I had to stall for time. My companions were still engaged fighting their own battles against these powerful creatures. I needed to stall the Captain and hope some of them could come to my assistance and help to defeat this bogeyman of orcish nightmares.