by Jeff Sproul
Riley realized that the indicator in his vision had to be some sort of damage buff, at least, but he also realized that he had more energy to tap into. How extensive was this buff? How long would it last? He couldn't tell, and he didn't have the time to focus on it and read it in depth. He just kept fighting.
"Thank you!" Laura spoke up seconds later. "We won't waste these gifts you've granted us. Now…if you'll excuse me from your presence, let me fight your enemies for you."
"Go, and do not waste my boons. Prove to me that you aren't as inferior as I initially believed," the dragon responded, before leaping away and diving into a pile of Golem soldiers. She brought her head back and then unleashed a ray of prismatic light that subsequently decimated several soldiers at a time.
"Let's turn this around, we're not losing this fight!" Laura called out.
Riley spared another glance to watch as several copies of Laura materialized from her form. There was no hand to hand contact, they were just separating from her and taking their own form.
"Let me take them in melee, everyone, keep your range if you can!" Laura said, with her voice coming over their bands. Her voice was loud enough to carry over to The Vigilant that were now in close proximity of them as well.
In groups of three, Laura's copies separated from her and rushed off in different directions. One of them came over to help Amber and Riley, but instead of using a shield and ranged beam glove, the gems in their gloves glowed red as a red hue enveloped their hands.
The copies of Laura punched Golem's soldiers with fists of energy.
Riley let Laura's copy take the lead as he let loose more red blasts, only to find that more and more copies of Laura were rushing into the battle.
At first, they were only just barely holding their lines against Golem's troops. Then, Riley realized that they were actually gaining ground. He tried doing a loose count of how many copies of Laura were active. There were definitely over thirty, but he didn't want to spend all his time counting. It was as if they were fighting on a stronger level than what Laura's clones had been capable of before. He was dying to know what the dragon had done for Laura. Or should he say, Legioness?
He was thrilled that Laura had finally achieved tier two and reached true paragon status. That, combined with the fact that they were turning this battle around, reinvigorated him. He continued to fight as Golem's troops thinned out minute by minute.
He tried to determine where the dragon had gone off to, as he didn't see her nearby. Then, with a glance in the air, he spotted Nexis soaring back into the sky.
Quick streaks of silver glinted in the sunlight as The Vigilant player Silver Shooter fired up at some of the jellies in the sky, as Nexis engaged with the behemoth on the right. More beams of white light ripped into the air from the ground. Riley realized that there were ten or so copies of Laura all laying down covering fire from the center of their position. But these were shooting into the sky to support the dragon.
The sky behemoth on the left was slowly lifting higher into the sky as it veered away. The one on the right was starting to rack up a lot of damage from Laura's copies, the dragon, and Silver Shooter's occasional shots on it.
Reinforcements were no longer being sent from the behemoths above. In fact, if anything, it looked as if they were trying to get away. Riley spotted numerous jellies cloak and disappear from view, only for the dragon to snatch an invisible one and tear it into particles.
"We're pushing them back, just stay alive!" came Chrono's voice over his band. "Let that dragon deal with the bastions in the sky. Let's clear up these ground forces."
Many of the jellies that had floated near the ground were also dispersing and cloaking, but Brenda with her crossbow and Ice Block with his pellets of jagged ice were managing to whittle them down at range, even as they tried to flee.
Soon enough, there weren't any more threats in Riley's line of sight. At least, nothing he could hit without hurting his allies. The sounds of battle were fading. The Vigilant were pushing with Laura's copies to support The Crimsons and The Royals. Now, it was the rest of The Brawlers' turn to back up The Vigilant as they squeezed in on Golem's remaining forces. But by the time Riley got anywhere close to the front line of remaining enemies, they were far too few in number for him to even take a shot at. The last of the hands had been destroyed roughly five minutes prior and only soldiers remained, until they too, were eliminated.
Even after the battle had ended, with no jellies, soldiers or hands in sight, nobody said anything. Everyone was looking around for their next enemy. People looked to the sky, but the only thing above them was a circling dragon.
"It looks like we've…won," came Chrono's confused voice. "Good job, everyone. We need to return home. We're going to leave the dragon alone. I have no idea what she’s doing, but she seems to be on our side now. I guess I have you to thank for that, Laura?"
Laura's voice came over Riley's band, but he'd long since lost track of her core body. "It's more like…we're on her side. But I think that Nexis helped us far more than she hurt us."
"Well, with the base gone, along with the resource nodes we had detected beneath it, we have no reason to try and hold this location further. We won a great victory here," said Chrono. But even as the words came over Riley's band, he found himself looking around, ignoring the number of Lauras, and realizing that their losses had been severe. How was this a victory? What had they gained from this? Perhaps it was what they didn't lose that could be seen as a victory. They had destroyed a significant number of Golem's forces, but how quickly could they be replenished? How much more of Golem was still out there?
Chrono's voice then sounded up again. "Alright, everyone, The Crimsons and The Royals are going to head into the tunnels we burrowed. We're going to have to travel back on foot. It's going to be a long walk home. Vigilant, follow behind The Royals, and then Brawlers cover the rear. Laura, if you can put in a good word for the alliance with the dragon, that'd be helpful. Let's move out."
Chapter 26: Recoup
Aaron sat across from Riley in their usual cafe hangout. Aaron hadn't even touched his milkshake as Riley told him everything that had happened the previous day.
"And then Laura had a very…respectful chat with the dragon, before Nexis flew off to…wherever she wanted to, I guess," said Riley.
"So this dragon gave Laura tier two and was some sort of monster that you could ally with?" Aaron asked, before leaning down and taking the straw of his milkshake between his lips.
Riley leaned back in his seat and held up a hand with three fingers. "Tier three. The dragon not only took Laura to tier two, but somehow gave her tier three on top of it. She's just as powerful as I am now. Along with anyone else who's tier three. I think there's some people in the alliance that might be tier three, but they're keeping it quiet. But a lot of people saw what happened to Laura. So I imagine people suspect she's tier three, even outside of The Bunker Brawlers. Besides, Brenda was there when Laura told us that she was tier three now. So, I'm sure Sage knows, if Brenda knows.”
"That's so crazy," Aaron said as he shook his head and brushed his hair back a little. He glanced away, looking to one of the televisions in the room, before returning his attention to Riley. "And none of this can even be shared with the media, because then they'd realize the sort of hit you guys took. Right?"
Riley nodded. "Yeah. If someone died, then their old video feed wouldn't be accessible. But anyone who was able to record it would be booted from the alliance and probably killed if Chrono or Sage found out."
"Oh, I'm sure," said Aaron. "So, do you know where the dragon came from? What was that hellion clan doing? I can't help but be curious, being a crafter and all."
"Well, I thought it was super weird when Laura started talking to the dragon all respectfully. She told us later that she was trying to roleplay with the dragon."
"Roleplay with the dragon?" Aaron asked.
Riley nodded. "Apparently, Laura used to play a game called Myths
and Monsters Online. It's a game that's been around for a while, where players start as human, but they can sort of…ascend to become other entities. They can take the form of dragons, giant monsters, and other stuff. But the whole game was very roleplay-heavy. Roleplay was super encouraged in the game and just about everyone in the game abided by its roleplay-heavy nature. So…Laura thinks that somehow, the hellion clan opened some sort of portal or something to this Myths and Monsters game. And in so doing, they brought Nexis through. Laura thinks Nexis is actually a really high level player from that game, but she doesn't know for sure. That game isn't like Sigil, where players just talk out of character. They all do their best to stay in character all the time, and that's part of the appeal."
"So…this player was pulled from another game, and was able to boost Laura up to tier three and you said she also gave you and the others some sort of buff?" Aaron asked.
Riley nodded. He took a moment to grab his glass of water and sip some of it down before he continued. "That's the theory. No way to know for sure, but regardless, Laura managed to make it all work out in the end. Also, that buff lasts a whole thirty days. It increases total energy by ten percent and damage by ten percent. But you wanna know the kicker? Only The Bunker Brawlers and The Vigilant got the buff. I think that Nexis was able to put two and two together and realized that we were trying not to attack her, while some of the hellions did. Not to mention, Chrono wanted to kill her for loot, too. So we were the only ones that got buffed, while the hellions missed out."
"Wow, that's harsh, but kinda funny," Aaron chuckled. "I mean, the whole thing sounds like it sucked overall, though. You go to this place, nothing goes the way you planned, but at least you defeated some of Golem's forces, I guess?"
"Yeah, we did. But we lost all of The Sappers, and a substantial amount of players from the hellion guilds. According to Chrono, a lot of those players signed back on last night. Even The Sappers. So the majority of them have made their way back to Crimson HQ to re-up with the alliance, but of course, they're all very low level. All of them are in different hellion forms now too. Even if they have the three-hundred percent experience boost to their previous level, they're going to have to spend some time leveling. There aren't a lot of good places to do that at the moment. At least, not for The Crimson Alliance. But I think they're going to group a lot of them together for safety, and then go out as a swarm."
"What did Sage say about the whole thing?" Aaron asked. "I feel like he'd be upset."
Riley sighed. "Well…we all went back to HQ and Chrono and Laura filled Sage in. Apparently, Taurus and Thrash had to immediately heal up and deal with a small incursion coming from what used to be Uber City. It also sounded as though Taurus couldn't use his special 'go anywhere around the world' ability too soon. Else I believe he would've come back for us. Somehow, his ability was able to take all of The Thrashers and The Pale Ones. I have no clue how it works, but I really want to find out."
"Sounds like a way better mode of travel than me having to use monsters," said Aaron with a smirk.
Riley couldn't help but envision the first time he saw Aaron's Weevil form. Or, Arbiter form. He slowly shook his head as he recounted the ordeal with Aaron and the 'glownaconda,' or whatever the creature had been back then.
"I know I have a lot of trouble with portals, but man…I'd sure love a nice ability that let me go around as I pleased," Riley mused.
"So…what did Sage say?" Aaron asked again, as Riley hadn't actually answered his original question.
"Oh, right. Um…well, he informed us several times that we were in a very precarious position. Like, a good several times," Riley sighed. "I think the majority of us that survived are going to have to be on guard duty until the hellions that lost their characters are able to level up some."
"Sounds like fun," Aaron smirked.
"Yeah, sure, fun," Riley sighed. "At least if I'm on duty on the outer perimeter, there's sometimes roaming monsters that come in from the unclaimed areas. So, that's a tiny bit of experience and sometimes some loot. What sucks the most is that due to the sheer amount of our losses, I think our alliance dividend is going to be nonexistent for a while. Neither Sage nor Chrono were predicting that we'd lose the entire scorpion army that we brought with us. That was a lot of resources, I imagine. And of course, there's the player casualties we took. And whatever those players had on them. I think the alliance, or at least Chrono, is able to make hellion gear to give to the players that died. So, it's not like they're starting from nothing. They're going to have a good leg up on getting back to their level as long as nobody attacks us."
"Well, it sounds as though you're hurting, but you have those smaller guilds to protect you and a lot of you survived, I guess? So…I'm sure you'll be able to make ends meet. I bet Sage is scrambling to reinforce the city in case anyone finds out how much you all lost?"
Riley nodded. "Yeah, he said he was going to be stretching his own powers a bit to reinforce the HQ. Whatever that means. I think he mostly had his powers in his little pocket dimension he made for himself and The Crimsons. But now he's using his powers to make new turrets and stuff around the outside of the Crimson Alliance HQ. I'm sure he's got his work cut out for him."
"You think Sage is tier three?" Aaron posed as he took a drink of his milkshake.
"I've thought about it. I really think he might be," said Riley. "I wouldn't doubt it, but I'm sure he wouldn't answer if I asked. I kinda don't even want to ask. I don't want him thinking that I'm trying to pry about him and find out how strong he might be. I mean, to be fair, he did kinda take several of us on in his lair. Of course, Brenda did have her crossbow to my head at the time. So…who knows? He might just have a really strong home field advantage, but regardless, he could very well be tier three. He never leaves the base, though. So I feel it's in good shape as long as he's around to defend it."
"If you guys need weapons and items, you know where to find me," Aaron said with a grin.
Riley smirked back and shook his head. "I've tried promoting you to Chrono, for things that we might not have. But besides that base stuff you helped me with the other day, they tend to stick to hellion things. I'm sure you're doing just fine with selling your paragon-centric wares to all the guilds in the area."
"I'm doing alright," said Aaron. "I could always be doing better, though. I'm sitting on a lot of materials right now. I've got a lot of things that are currently sitting around waiting to be sold. I know you're going to think I'm a warmonger, but I was kinda hoping all this stuff with Golem might help me sell my items."
Riley laughed. "I've never stopped thinking you were a warmonger. So, no need to worry about that."
"Not that I mean to pry or anything, but how well-hidden are your outposts in Crimson Alliance?" Aaron asked.
"How well-hidden?" Riley asked. "Uh…I'm not really sure? The base that we just tried to take would've been pretty well-hidden, I guess. But since it was absorbed into that sphere that spawned the dragon, that entire base option was a bust. As far as the outposts we have are concerned, I know that Rose is pretty much out in the open. It has some defenses, but it's not well-hidden. I think it's in a bit of a dead area though. I've never been to any of the other outposts. Well, I suppose Blood is well-hidden, but it doesn't extract resources."
"Blood is your outpost over in…Death's Chasm, right?" Aaron asked curiously.
Riley nodded. "Yeah. Haven't been back to it since Golem chased us out of its cave. We have surveillance in the area and apparently Golem launches excursions on the bosses in the surrounding areas. Essentially, farming them for resources. We haven't sent a real group to Death's Chasm since we left. We can't risk losing anyone, especially now. So we've just been using drones to recon the area. It's likely that we're going to eventually lose Outpost Blood, if Golem ever comes across it. As for now, that location is as good as burned until we can find a way to kill all of Golem everywhere."
"And how's that going for you?" Aaron asked with a lifted brow.
"Any leads on how that could even be done?"
Riley shrugged and turned to glance around the cafe. "I have no idea. I don't even know if Sage knows at this point. We fought three of its sky bastions and took plenty of losses, but nothing we can't recover from in time. But I can't help but wonder how much of Golem we actually beat back in the process. You know?" Riley looked back to Aaron. "Did we kill half of its forces in Sigil? Ten percent? One percent? Less? For all we know, we lost a ton of players and resources for no benefit at all."
"Yeah, I definitely see the problem. Especially with how well it hides," said Aaron.
"Apparently it doesn't hide that much in Mage World Online. The whole hiding thing is apparently its new way of dealing with the fact that it's invading Sigil Online. So, lucky us."
"If that's the case, then maybe there's a good chance that it hasn't gotten a substantial foothold in Sigil yet?" Aaron asked. "You said it lost…one, two bastions?"
Riley nodded. "The dragon managed to kill the second bastion. I missed its death when I was trying to find things on the ground to kill. But the third flying bastion got away."
"Hmm," Aaron murmured. "It must have a substantial base somewhere in order to actually deploy a creature of that size, right?"
"That's the theory that Sage and Chrono were tossing back and forth when we assaulted that nest yesterday morning," Riley pointed out. "We assumed that the hellion nest we were attacking was part of its base in some fashion. It was of an appropriate size that it could've launched the sky bastions from it, but we were entirely wrong. I honestly think…I really think that Sage and Chrono knew full well that the hellion nest wasn't Golem. The info made it out like it could be, but…I think they used our fear of Golem to just push for more territory, and it backfired terribly."
"From what you've said about Sage and my limited time in chats with Chrono, it makes sense that they'd take that initiative. You all need more resources if you're going to take on Golem. But now you're a bit of a step behind."