Forest (Gaia's Rebirth Book 1)

by Caiden Walker

  “Down that short tunnel to the left just up ahead,” he said. “Of course, you know the elves could still be lost in the tunnels of the cave.” He gave a grimace. “Your friend too, unfortunately.”

  “Somehow, I don’t think so,” Nika said. After all, how do you tell an NPC that they are nothing but code inside a game?

  Everyone was getting their weapons ready and making sure that their health and mana potions were within quick reach. Finally, Nika turned again to Louella.

  “You think you could sneak in first and hit them with one of your Sun Rays? Then you could go after Ash, and we could have a few seconds of surprise attack while they were still blinded.”

  The pixie nodded. “No problem. Just stay out of the room until I give you all the signal.”

  “So is everybody ready to do this?” Evan asked, scanning all of their faces, one by one.

  They were.

  A matter of a few steps and they were at the short tunnel’s entrance and for the first time, they could hear sounds ahead. Nika checked her map. They were close enough now for the elves to register. She only saw eleven, and that had her worried.

  Somehow, she just knew that the last one was the big one. Not knowing where he was or what he was up to wasn’t making her feel warm and fuzzy. It did help though when she saw the small purple dot in what appeared to be the treasure room ahead. Ash was still in the area.

  That helped. It would help even more if Louella could get her loose.

  Once they reached the room’s doorway, they could make out the elves arguing. They were fighting over the treasure.

  Good. That should mean that they were already at least a little distracted.

  Louella looked to Nika who gave her a small nod. The pixie responded with a quick thumbs-up and a deep breath before flying into the room as close to the ceiling as she could get. A second later, shouts and unhappy yells from the elves told them that at least that part had gone well.

  The three remaining rushed into the room. Dean took a stance to the right of the door and started firing into the elves on that side of the room. Nika didn’t wait to see how his attacks faired before giving the Intimidation Cry to lower the enemies’ defenses, followed quickly by the WarCry to up their attack.

  Hopefully, the double whammy would make the fight a little more even, given the fact that they were outnumbered three to one. At least until Ash got free to help. Even then, they would still be outnumbered, just not quite so bad. She didn’t really have time at the moment to do the math.

  She could see Louella flying toward the back of the room, toward where the purple dot said that Ash could be found. Then she was in the middle of three elves, her blade flashing as fast as her Amazonian speed allowed. So far, they weren’t fighting back, because they still couldn’t see what was hitting them. That wouldn’t last long.

  Before the blindness wore off, the odds were looking a tad better. A rough, quick count showed her nine red dots remaining. So they had gotten two down just out of surprise alone. Now came the tricky part.

  The light bomb wouldn’t work now without affecting them too, so that wasn’t something that they could repeat, no matter how effective it was.

  Nika was a bit startled to see Louella flying up and into the battle—without Ash. The pixie let blast with her nature attack and two more elves, already wounded by Nika’s blade and the tiger’s claws, disappeared.

  Unfortunately, the elves were now fully functioning and fighting back. They seemed to be pretty evenly divided between sword fighters and archers, both of which had a hell of a lot better range than either Nika or Evan. That was a problem.

  She risked a quick glance over at Louella and realized that she could practically see straight through her. The clone! Good job, Louella, she thought.

  A second later two of the remaining elves burst into flames, under heavy mage fire. With the one-two punch of nature magic following from Louella and her clone, they disappeared in a puff of glitter and light.

  A light beacon flared from the spot where one of them had disappeared, signaling that a major item had been dropped by the fallen one. Nika was really hoping it was an ax.

  But collecting loot was for later, there were still five elves to deal with. What do you know, she thought, we’re at even odds. We might just win this thing even with just being level seven.

  Of course, right after having that small thought of victory, the elf Striker had warned them of stepped into the room. Damn. The dwarf hadn’t been exaggerating his size one iota. And he was right, elves didn’t get that large by nature alone.

  By nature, elves are tall and slender. Muscular, sure, but a stringy and lean kind of muscle. This elf stood a head above the others, easily topping seven feet tall. And the muscles covering his entire body weren't the lean kind. No, they were more the Mr. Universe kind. And his health bar was ridiculously long. Just like those invincible ones.

  Crap on toast, even with the extra power she'd had Louella pump into her new frenzied attack, this didn’t look like a battle they could win. Especially since they were currently under heavy fire from the remaining five, more normal, elves.

  Making a split second decision, Nika shouted out to the party. "New plan—run!" Figuring it was a risk worth taking, she took the three steps forward to collect the legendary item, not even bothering to see what it was before turning to run out the door they had entered by. Luckily that hadn't been the entrance the large elf had used.

  Following the others out that small entrance, she was pleased to see Louella—both of her—floating on opposite sides of the small door opening. As Nika ran past, she yelled, "Double Earthquake!"

  Louella hesitated but only a matter of half a second. It was almost too long. Risking a look behind her shoulder, Nika saw the over large elf almost at the door. But even he couldn't run well when the floor started shaking.

  The Earthquake was centered on the room they'd just left, but that didn't mean it wouldn't have repercussions for them out in the tunnel too. Being underground, even with just a nearby earthquake, wasn't a place you wanted to be.

  They were running full out, and she kept frantically hoping for two things. One, that her plan had worked, and they had killed the big elf. And two, that they all got out of there alive.

  Chapter Twenty-Four: Return to Riser’s Creek

  Dean was reaching for the save fountain as they passed it but Ash managed to slap his hand away before it made contact. He gave her an odd look, but nodded and kept running.

  It was hard to make any kind of speed when the floor under your feet was shaking so badly. She knew it had to be much worse in the room they had just left but she was really hoping the whole cave didn't fall down on top of them. It was a nightmare come true for her and they couldn't reach the entrance to the forest soon enough to suit her.

  They had made it past two big bends in the tunnel before they heard Striker's shout. Looking over her shoulder back at him, she saw him give Nika a shove just as a portion of the cavern roof fell. The Amazon fell well out of reach of the falling stone, but the dwarf wasn't so lucky.

  Surprisingly, instead of keeping up her pace, Nika stopped to help him. After hesitating a mere fraction of a second, Ash ran back to help.

  "Help me lift the rock," Nika pleaded. The two of them lifting with all their might couldn't do more than make the rock come a bare inch off the ground. Then Dean was beside them and it raised another few inches.

  Just enough for Louella to pull the dwarf from under the boulder.

  Nika looked over to Ash, tears in her eyes. "Heal him, please."

  Ash tried, but her spell bounced back and she shook her head. "I can't. He's not a party member." She tried tossing him a health potion, but that didn't work either.

  Striker opened his eyes and groaned. "Leave me, Goddess," he croaked. "Or my death with be for naught."

  "Not happening," Nika said tersely.

  Ash watched as she picked the small man up as carefully as she could and draped him ov
er her shoulder in a fireman's carry. The walls around them were cracking and it wouldn't be long before the entire roof collapsed.

  They headed back toward the entrance, with the pixie now in the lead with the light. The extra weight didn't seem to slow Nika down, and they made a good, steady progress through the now unstable tunnel.

  Then they rounded one last bend, and the trembling came to an abrupt stop. A little farther, and the cracks stopped appearing in the walls and ceiling. They could still hear the falling stone hit the floor shortly behind them, though, so they kept up their pace for another hundred yards, waiting until silence descended in the cave once more before finally slowing.

  "We made it?" Dean asked, incredulously. Then he grabbed Ash and pulled her into a bear hug. "We made it!"

  "Don't get too into the celebration yet," Nika said. "We have to get to town fast."

  Dean looked at her and stopped his dance at the sight of the still dwarf across her shoulder. "Is he alive?"

  Nika nodded, her cheeks glistening with tears. "I can feel him breathing, but barely. We have to get to get him to a town doctor. Ash can't heal him."

  The trip out of the cave didn't take nearly as long as the trip into it. They weren't so worried now about elves sneaking up on them. The elves were buried under a cavern full of rubble.

  As they crossed through the cavern mouth, Ash heard the system message. “Congratulations. You have reached Level Eight. You have gained the ability to cast regeneration on your party. Regeneration will heal your party at a rate of 50 health points a minute for ten minutes. Your heal spell is now level six. You can now equip a rod.”

  Yes. Her fingers fairly itched to get their grip on that Rod of Light that should be waiting for her back at town. If they got that many experience points from that battle, then the system obviously counted it as a win. The pixie’s Earthquake must have killed the uber elf after all.

  Evan walked up beside Nika, who really hadn’t slowed her pace much since exiting the cavern. Ash had to jog to catch up to them.

  “You know he’s just an NPC, right?” Evan asked softly.

  “I know, and I don’t care,” Nika said. “He saved me, Evan. No one has ever risked anything for me, ever. He did. I really don’t care if he’s just a bunch of zeros and ones. He’s real enough for me.”

  To his credit, Evan didn’t argue. “Can I at least carry him for you?”

  She shook her head and kept walking. Ash remembered helping to lift the stone off the dwarf. Evan had been the only one who hadn’t turned back to help. Maybe he wasn’t such a great guy after all.

  Of course, he had been leading the retreat. It was possible that he hadn’t known they had stopped. Possible, but Ash was having a hard time believing it.

  They took the quickest route to town. A couple of minor skirmishes cropped up on their way, but the enemies were weak ones and easily handled. The party fell into a routine with the over-powered pixie leading the way taking care of any enemies to the front, and Dean and Ash covering the rear for any attacks that might come from behind or the side.

  Nika never stopped walking. Even when the rest of them were fighting, she kept going. Leaving them to catch up to her when they were done. By the time they reached Riser’s Creek, they were a third of the way to level nine. So at least the trip back had yielded a little progress, even if the battles were on the small side.

  A nearby NPC saw the dwarf across Nika’s shoulders and recognized him.

  “It’s Striker,” he yelled. “They’ve brought back Striker!”

  “Doctor?” Nika grunted.

  The man stopped and pointed to a small blue roofed dwelling only a few yards away. Then he ran off in the direction of the tavern. Most likely to alert Striker’s father.

  Ash opened the door and Nika strode inside the small building, laying the dwarf as gently as she could on the first bed she came across.

  A man dressed in white came out from behind a curtain and immediately stepped up to the bed.

  “What happened?”

  “Earthquake inside a cavern,” Nika said, her voice catching. “He pushed me out of the way and a large piece of the ceiling fell on him.”

  The doctor nodded and ran his hands gently over the small, still figure of Striker, his eyes closed. Once the hands had traveled the entire length of the dwarf’s body, they started their way back up from the feet toward the head.

  Only this time, the hands were glowing. Ash didn’t know if the others could see the magic or not, but the beauty of it took her breath away. The green energy flowed from his moving hands and into Striker’s form, the waves fairly dancing in the thin air between.

  By the time, his hands reached the top of Striker’s head, the dwarf’s eyes opened. They didn’t stop until they found Nika.

  “My goddess,” he said, his voice weak and wobbly. “Praise the heavens you still live.”

  Nika gave a hard swallow before answering. “Praise them that you live as well, dwarf.” Then she leaned in close to his ear. “And don’t ever do that again.”

  He gave her a small smile. “Sorry my goddess, but that is one wish not in my power to grant. If I see you in danger, I will gladly throw my life to the very wind to save you.”

  Nika took a deep breath and turned to the doctor. “Is he going to be okay?”

  “Nothing that a few days and a fair few healing passes like that one won’t cure.” He smiled at her. “He’ll be good as new in a week and back at his shenanigans shortly thereafter.”

  She nodded and turned back to Striker. “Get well, Striker. And thank you for what you did.” She hesitated. “We have to move on now, so you take care of yourself, you hear? No more dangerous stuff. And for God’s sake, stay away from the bloody elves.”

  His face fell when he realized she was leaving him. “I can go with you.” He struggled to sit up, but he still wasn’t quite that strong.

  “No,” Nika said. “Not this time.” Then she took her blade and cut a small patch of hair from her long pony tail and handed it to him. “Take this token as it’s all I have to give you and know that we will meet again. My darling little Striking Striker.” Then she bent down and kissed him full on the lips.

  His eyes were dancing, and he was still clutching the small lock of hair as they made their way back out onto the street.

  Nika looked around at the rest of the group. “What say we break for a drink at the closest tavern?”

  “Hell, yeah,” Evan and Dean said together.

  Laughing, they all joined arms and walked down the street toward the tavern. The day was gone, and they were well into the night at this point. In fact, it was nearly daylight again.

  Going to the tavern wasn’t really what was uppermost on Ash’s mind, but she figured Tyler would be off duty and asleep right now. Besides, she didn’t have a clue where he lived. So the tavern was the next best thing.

  The bar might be open all the time to hit players whenever they needed it, but at this early morning hour, it was at least quiet. There were a few die-hard townsfolk sitting on the stools at the counter bar, but most of the tables were empty.

  They ordered their drinks of choice, and Dean surprised them all by picking up the tab for all of them. Then they settled down at the nearest table, not willing to even walk a few extra steps to reach a more prime spot.

  They were silent as they drank, most likely each of them thinking on the happenings of the day. Ash figured she was the one exception to that. Then she spotted Dean’s crestfallen face out of the corner of her eye.

  “What gives, Dean?” she asked. “We lived, remember?”

  He gave her a weak smile. “Yeah, we lived, but the long bow reward is under a huge pile of rubble. Without it, I’m going to be pretty much useless to you all in the battle with the orcs.”

  Ash looked down into her glass as she swirled the liquid inside it. “Yeah, I’m really sorry about that. We lost a legendary drop, too, when we had to run like that.”

  Nika smiled at them.
“Actually, we didn’t,” she said. “Though to be quite honest, I’d forgotten all about that until you mentioned it.”

  “You got it?” Dean’s face brightened. “Who was it for?”

  The woman shrugged. “Just a sec, and I’ll find out.”

  Ash watched as she made the motions to pull up her inventory. The slow smile told her it was something good.

  “You know that longbow that Striker’s dad promised you?”

  “That was the drop?” Dean sounded excited.

  “No.”

  His face fell. That was cruel, even for Nika.

  “This longbow could eat that longbow for lunch,” she said, grinning. She pulled the longbow from her inventory and passed it over to Dean.

  He was awestruck. They all were, really. And a tad jealous too. It was incredibly lovely. The bow itself had been carved from a single piece of wood and the string was a lovely golden color that matched the stained and shined sheen of the wooden bow.

  Dean ran his hand over it lovingly. “Now I can handle the orcs.”

  Nika shook her head. “I’m really not sure we are ready for them yet. Generally, you want to be at least level ten before facing them. Remember, that battle leads into the main boss fight for the forest level. I’m not sure at level eight we’d even stand a chance.

  Now it was Ash’s turn to look down. “If it’s like the online game, the orcs are pretty much fire and lightning resistant. The only magic that really affects them for damage is ice magic. And a mage doesn’t get the Blizzard spell until they hit level ten. Talk about being useless. All I’ll be good for is patching you all up as you get hit. And that only while my mana holds out.”

  “As much as I hate to say it, I think we need to take the day tomorrow and just concentrate on leveling up,” Nika said. “If I’m not mistaken, the item shop should carry the return stones now, so that will help. We’ll each buy one and if we see we are going to be rebooted, we can use the stone to return here and save first. That way we don’t lose our progress.”