by Tyler R Lee
“Can’t tell from here,” Lysander said, squinting in the object’s direction.
“Let’s get a closer look,” Streak offered and bounded that way.
“Wait!” Lysander, NoScope, Ariel, and Peter cried in unison.
Streak froze in place, one foot in the air, mid step. He slowly turned his head to the group, eyes wide in confusion. “Okay?”
“We need to be…” Peter started, but was stopped by the sound of the wind picking up, whipping aggressively through the trees. It grew incredibly violent, like a tornado was about to rip through the forest. Then, as quickly as it had begun, it stopped, and the forest fell deadly quiet. “...careful,” he finished, more than a bit of worry rising in his voice.
“Look,” NoScope called out, her attempted calm failing to hide the worry creeping up in her voice. When the others looked to one end of the clearing where she was motioning, they saw a familiar specter hovering just inches above the forest floor, blue flame alight in lantern and eyes.
“And there,” Gunner added, motioning to another side of the clearing where the ghost wielding the red lantern floated.
“It’s all four of them,” Ariel announced, and the group soon noticed that the ghosts, lanterns and eyes blazing, had surrounded the large clearing they were in.
“Get ready!” Lysander called out as he slammed the bottom of his staff into the ground. The others readied their own unique forms of offense and prepared for what they assumed would be an all out assault by the ghosts, who had already showed powerful magic capable of killing the players quickly if they were not careful. However, as the companions stood, weapons drawn, fists up, gun out, spells ready, the ghosts merely hovered, never moving any closer.
Always impatient, Streak offered, “Does one of us need to get closer to get this star--”
“No!” the rest of the party said in unison.
“Alright, then.”
Before anyone could suggest a different plan, another figure walked out from the smaller clearing where the mystery object resided. The party turned towards the approaching figure, realizing the ghosts were not going to attack. Not yet, at least.
From the clearing walked a large, humanoid creature. It was a head taller than any of the group, and broad shouldered. As they drew closer, each slow footfall sounding like a car crash, they saw that it was someone clade in a full suit of ornate armor that covered their entire body. Closer it came, and they saw the state of the armor was ancient; what once may have shown bright silver or bronze was now a dark and grungy greenish brown, caked with rust and overgrown with part of the forest itself.
The old knight came within twenty feet of the group and stopped. They then, swiftly, retrieved their greatsword from their back, which matched the armor in appearance, as the nameplate appeared above them.
“Forest Guardian,” Peter read before the name disappeared.
“I think he wants to fight,” Gunner grinned, aiming his arm cannon the knight’s way.
“Another greatsword? So do I,” Ariel said, a small smile evident in her tone, despite the severity of the situation. She strode forward as the knight began to approach, retrieving her sword as well.
“Here we go,” Lysander said. “For real this time.”
Ariel took off running toward the enemy, who picked up its pace and brought its sword down hard as the female dark elf got within swinging distance, bringing her greatsword up to meet the knight’s. The swords clashed and a shockwave reverberated through the clearing as two trains collided.
“Maybe this’ll be quick,” Ariel smiled through gritted teeth as she pushed her sword up against the ancient knight’s. Then, she saw the guardian’s eyes flash red as it began pushing back. Within a heartbeat, she felt her sword being forced down, and, try as she might, she couldn’t reverse it. “Maybe not,” she said, rethinking the situation.
The knight pushed her further down until a bolt of blue energy impacted its shoulder, causing them to lose a bit of ground. The second hit it directly in the head less than a second later and it let up on its assault, considerably. Ariel looked back for just a second and saw that Gunner had begun his ranged attack, giving her a nod as he fired more. She took this opportunity to slip out from under the guardian’s blade. It hit the forest floor with a thud and sank deep into the ground.
Ariel, faster with a greatsword than many would be with a smaller weapon, swung her sword around and hit her opponent in the abdomen, which seemed to have little effect. Nevertheless, she swung her sword back a second time, then a third, not losing a step or wasting a movement with each attack. They impacted, but she soon saw that this foe was stout, to say the least. Despite being hit by a greatsword and a flurry of energy blasts, the Forest Guardian wretched its blade free from the ground with ease and swung it at Ariel, who narrowly stepped out of the way, then again, then she parried its third attack but was forced back by the shear force of the blow. She noticed that she took a bit of damage from blocking.
The rusted knight made to pursue, but it was met with an onslaught of kicks as Peter came in from above, connecting with two kicks to the knight’s head, then two more to its abdomen as the martial artist landed. Peter deftly ducked a backfist from the knight and leveled three quick punches into its chest, then flipped over a sideways slice from the rusted greatsword, ducking low as the sword came back far faster than Peter had anticipated. He stood quickly and was kicked in the gut by the knight, sending the fighter back several feet.
Now it was NoScope on the knight as she appeared from out of nowhere and sliced it in the back with her blade, sparks flying as metal hit metal. As her foe threw a backfist and sword swipe combo similar to how it dealt with Peter’s initial assault, the ninja disappeared in a puff of smoke, appearing behind the guardian and nailing it with three more sword attacks. Like Peter, she took a kick to the gut as the knight threw its foot backwards, sending her backflipping out of the fight.
Peter and Ariel were back, attacking at the same time. As Peter landed multiple hand and foot strikes, Ariel would swing her greatsword with power and speed. When the knight turned to her, she would parry its attack, and Peter would land several more blows.
“It’s like it doesn’t even feel this,” Peter said through gritted teeth as he jumped out of the way of another swipe of the enemy’s sword.
“Keep it up,” NoScope said, who was back and attacking from behind while her companions kept the knight guessing in front. “It’s taking damage.”
“Let’s give it a little more, then,” Streak called out as he came speeding in, landing far too many small blows to count, then speeding away before getting hit.
Suddenly, the Forest Guardian gripped its sword with both hands and spun in a circle as its sword glowed red. It extended the sword’s reach by several feet and upped its damage considerably. Peter narrowly jumped out of the way and NoScope was able to dash just out of range, but Ariel wasn’t as fast as them, so she was forced to block.
“I got her,” Streak yelled out as Ariel took the hit and, despite blocking, was thrown backwards by the force of the blow, taking more than a little damage to her HP. Streak raced up and caught her before she slammed into the ground.
“Thanks,” Ariel groaned but managed a smile.
“No problem,” Streak said, quickly, as he sped back in and landed a fast few hits to the knight, who didn’t seem to notice.
“You got anything?” Gunner called to Lysander as the cyborg continued to fire energy blast after energy blast at the target.
“I’ve been charging up,” Lysander answered. “Back up guys! Witchbolt!”
As the wizard called out the name of his attack, a greenish blue bolt of magic leapt from his staff and rocketed towards the knight, striking it and, for the first time, making it flinch. The bolt continued to stream from the staff and began to push the knight back.
“Keep firing,” Lysander called to Gunner, who had stopped to marvel at his friends magic.
“Right,” Gunner called o
ut as he continued to fire his arm cannon, taking longer to charge so that each blast packed more of a punch.
The group watched as the combined damage from Lysander’s and Gunner’s attacks slowly shaved HP off of the Forest Guardian’s health bar. When it hit half health, its eyes flashed red deep in its helmet.
“Something’s happening,” Ariel cried, remembering those eyes when they started the fight.
As she thought, the knight tried something new. It reared back with its massive blade and hurled it towards the one doing the most damage to it. Glowing red and slicing through the air, the sword cut a curve and made right for Lysander. Due to his intense concentration on the spell, the wizard did not see the attack coming in time, nor was he fast enough to dodge it by the time he noticed. It slammed into the dark elf, causing him to cry out in pain and sending him crashing to the ground, throwing up rocks and grass. When he landed, he had lost half of his HP.
“Lysander!” several of the party cried out as they saw him hit the ground. However, before they could get to him, the knight’s sword came whirling back. As their foe caught it, still glowing an evil red, the guardian plunged the blade into the ground, sending out a shockwave that managed to catch everyone in its radius. When it hit, everyone was thrust backward, violently.
Without wasting time, the guardian rushed towards the other person who had been plaguing him. Gunner regained his senses in time to see the knight only a few feet away, sword held high, ready to strike. The ranged fighter only had enough time to look up in terror.
“Don’t forget about me!” Streak cried as he rammed his shoulder into the advancing foe like a bolt of lighting, sending it stangering a few feet, but taking a bit of damage himself from the impact. Gunner couldn’t hide the shock on his face when Streak stopped in front of him, grimacing from the pain.
“You...thank you,” Gunner stuttered.
“Don’t mention it.”
The knight turned its attention to Streak, but Peter was now upon it with a flurry of blows that actually began to stagger the creature. “It’s working!” he cried out as he moved away from another attack, but was caught by a second. Ariel and NoScope were there, however, and picked up the slack when Peter had to back off.
The Forest Guardian’s sword was now consistently glowing a far more intense red, which increased its reach and damage, making the fight even more perilous. When it suddenly executed another spin attack, Ariel and Peter evaded, but NoScope and Streak were too close and took a serious hit to their health points.
“We’re wearing him down,” Lysander cried, who was now back on his feet and throwing magical bolts of energy from his staff. He had used much of his magic on the witchbolt, so he didn’t have much left.
“He’s doing something similar to us,” Peter reminded as he dashed in front of NoScope and Streak, distracting the guardian so they could get to their feet. “It sucks that he has almost no stagger from our hits.”
“Look out!” NoScope cried as she saw the sword glow brighter, as did the eyes of the knight. “He’s using his shockwave.”
“Dammit!” Peter muttered, realizing he couldn’t get Streak and NoScope away fast enough. The attack didn’t do a terrible amount of damage, but any at this stage was dangerous. With that, he cried out and threw up his energy shield to try and take the brunt of the wave.
“No ya don’t!” Ariel called out to the knight, having other plans than allowing it to complete that attack. She dashed forward unnaturally fast, outlined in a purplish glow. As she approached, she spun in rapid circles, similar to what Peter had seen ShieldBro do against the goblins in their last battle. Ariel made contact and dealt several blows to the knight as it attempted to raise its sword. The impact of each blow was less than a second apart and sounded like a jackhammer. Not only was it shaving off health from the enemy, it was slowing down its ability to complete its attack. Finally, as it had pulled its sword all the way up, something shattered in front of it as it staggered backward, losing the attack.
“She broke its stance,” Streak said with a grin. “Damn, she’s tough.”
“My turn,” Gunner said as he got up to one knee behind the guardian. He hadn’t moved in the few moments from when the knight had advanced on him, but when Ariel had begun her assault, he took the opportunity to stand and set for a vicious attack.
“Let’s see how you like my gatling gun!” At those words, Gunner’s arm opened up, extended another barrel, longer and slimmer, from the center, with several slightly smaller barrels surround that one. On cue, the surrounding barrels started firing smaller energy blasts as they rotated around the center barrel, which was also firing its own bullets.
As the rapid fire of Gunner’s missiles struck the back of the creature, it was unable to regain its stance, and just took the beating, appearing as someone getting gunned down in an old gangster movie.
Gunner roared as his gatling gun rang out. Then, all barrels smoking, it ran out of energy. As the sound of empty barrels spinning clicked throughout the clearing, the Forest Guardian fell to its knees, then fell forward like a toppling skyscraper.
Silence fell over the forest. The party stared down at the rusted armor. After several heartbeats, they turned to the ghosts who had been watching. As if on cue, the ghosts disappeared into the forest.
“I think we did it,” Peter said, his breathing heavy as he placed a hand on Ariel’s shoulder, who was still down on one knee after her attack. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” she smiled, also breathing heavily, giving her companion a thumbs up.
“You’re a hell of a warrior,” Peter said, returning the thumbs up.
“More like a beast,” Gunner said, excitedly, as he walked up and offered a high five to the one who had broken the immovable knight’s stance.
“Says Rambo over here,” Ariel laughed as she stood up and high fived the cyborg, who blushed.
“Yeah,” Streak said, walking over. “Hella gunplay.”
“Thanks,” Gunner responded, averting his eyes. Then, he looked directly at Streak and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Thank you, Streak. You saved me a lot of pain.”
“Yeah,” Streak said as he now averted his eyes. “That’s what teammates are for,” he smiled. He looked down and helped NoScope to her feet, who offered him a thankful smile.
“We all did good,” Lysander coughed as he walked slowly over, clutching his abdomen. “Sorry I wasn’t more help. That sword throw almost took me out.”
“Okay, mister take out half the enemy’s HP,” Peter laughed. “If not for your, what did you call it, Witchbolt? We might not have been successful.” Lysander just smiled.
“Well,” Streak said. “Now can we see what is over in that damn clearing?”
At that, the group cautiously made their way over to where the knight had wandered from. As they approached, they noticed that the object was a pedestal. Upon it was what appeared to be a simple flute with some unreadable runes carved into it.
“Hmmm,” Lysander mused as he touched it and an item description popped up. “The Wanting Flute. It says ‘Ancient flute found deep in the Forest of Want. Watched over by the Spectres of the Wood and their Forest Guardian, the Wanting Flute is somehow connected with The Hidden Tomb west of New Beginnings. But what purpose does it serve?’”
“Helpful,” Streak huffed.
“I’ll bet the Village Elder knows something,” Peter offered.
“Can we please get out of this forest?” Streak said as he fell onto his back in exaggerated exhaustion.
“Do we have to head back through the maze?” Peter asked as he lifted Streak up by the scruff of the neck with ease, both laughing.
“Nah,” Lysander said as he pulled up his inventory. We’ll use an Entrance Stone. Takes us back to the entrance of a dungeon or isolated area. This forest counts as one.”
“Thank god,” Streak said as Lysander used the stone, which wrapped them all in a blue light, then whisked them away.
It took only a moment
for the stone to place them right outside the forest. They looked at each other, battered and a bit bloody, and smiled. “Village Elder?” Peter asked.
“Hell yeah,” Gunner answered. “Let’s hit it.”
“There you are,” came an old, shaky voice from just down the road. As the group turned, a look of surprise and confusion made its way onto all of their faces. Walking towards them was the Village Elder, smile on his jovial face, slow and steady pace they had seen before. “Seems I have good timing. I was hoping you would make it out safely.”
Chapter 11
“We were just about to come to you,” Peter said as the group walked over to meet the elder.