Chapter 63 – Showdown
at the Gate
The warlord slowly approaches the breach at the end of the passage way. His trusty halberd is resting on his right shoulder, its weight unknown as the virtual reality equipment does not include shoulder pad sensors to mimic the weight of the weapon. Heimdall’s eyes on locked in on the enemy players slowly stepping through the breach in the lines of abatis.
Although the bombs managed to blow the wooden obstacles into pieces, the debris still littered the field and the invaders have to carefully avoid stepping on the sharp, jagged pieces on the ground. Otherwise, the movements of the players will be hampered, and this may prove deadly especially to melee fighters who rely on their feet for positioning.
Heimdall can hear the sound of aerial combat above his head, but simply ignores it as a mere distraction from his assignment. He sees fifteen enemies in all, the majority of whom are fighters.
The Virtuans see the approaching fighter, a lonely figure in the distance and look at each other in amusement. “What happened to the rest of the defenders?” one guy wonders aloud. Easy Money is going to have an easy win now!
“Quiet,” Virgil growls as he eyes the approaching Eternian closely. “This is not just any player. It’s the Decapitator,” he warns and groans inwardly. The man is dressed in black full plate armor, with a depiction of a skull on his torso. Only one Eternian in the game customized his armor like that, and this man is a legend for his preferred tactic to one shot opposing moba players by detaching the enemy’s head from the neck.
In a player versus player encounter, it doesn’t matter how much health and therefore damage a player can withstand. Advanced moba fighters can use the “Called Shot” ability to aim attacks at a specific body part. While this ability reduces the chance of landing the blow to half the normal rate, fighters at the maximum character level can reduce the penalty down to a mere ten percent. The man before them is also rumored to possess magic items that eliminate this penalty entirely, allowing him to dispatch enemies, especially in group formations, with ease.
Heimdall finally stops his march, still a good distance from the location of the breach. They will have to come to him, rather than the other way around. Since the passage way is carved inside a mountain, the invaders cannot climb over him; they have to defeat him if they wish to reach the portal. He slaps the end of his halberd down on the paved ground. “I greet you, fellow players. I am Heimdall, the toll keeper. The cost of passage shall be your lives. Who dares to pay for passage?” he asks aloud for the viewers at home to hear.
“I can take this turkey single handedly,” Johnny the Brute says. Can’t this old man see that he is outnumbered fifteen to one? He’s just stalling for time. “Charge!” the berserker sudden yells out and rushes toward the lonely defender!
“Charge!” cry out a number of companions who think similarly, and decide to take the plunge.
“NO!” Virgil yells out, to no avail. I was going to toss a few bombs to kill Heimdall from a distance. Damn it! I’m going to dock Johnny’s pay for his insubordination, the mercenary leader thinks angrily. With the decision hastily wrestled out of Virgil’s hand, he starts to enter the passage way albeit at a slower pace than his disobedient fighters. The eight remaining players march slowly behind him. The road could be trapped, Virgil thinks with annoyance.
Heimdall is quickly surrounded by six fighters. The large man, some six feet six inches tall with a powerful build befitting his hobby as a bodybuilder, grins with delight. He slowly turns his head, peering at each fool through the opening in his helmet. He senses the opponent directly behind him start to move, and the experienced arena fighter moves even faster than the six could believe possible for a man his size.
Lifting the halberd off the ground, Heimdall immediately activates his master level pole arm ability: “Whirling Spin.” Holding the double bladed halberd by the lower end of the shaft and extending his massive arms, the fighter spins his body around in a tight circle while moving his feet. The fighter alternates between holding the blade at mid-chest level and lifting it higher to the neck level.
Virgil and his followers can only stare in horror as Heimdall cuts through the circle of their comrades, tearing through flesh and armor like paper. By the time the solo fighter stops his spin, every Virtuan fighter surrounding him has been cut into pieces.
* * *
“And there it is!” Evan yells with excitement! “The most feared melee fighter in World of Eternia just took out six men! By himself! Let’s have a replay please,” he requests. The screen immediately replays the activation of the special pole arm skill, and the gory aftermath.
Charles balls his hands into fists at the screen. What a disgrace!
Richard smirks at his rival’s anger. “I am blessed to have so many talented players willing to defend their game world,” he says with feint humbleness. “The motivation from a desire to protect is a powerful force, perhaps even more influential than money,” he lectures.
“The live counter now shows thirty six Eternians to thirty Virtuans,” Antoinette notes for the audience streaming the broadcast. She turns to face Charles. “How will your players overcome such a disheartening loss?” she asks.
“My players are professionals,” the CEO of Virtuous Gaming replies with a calm demeanor. “Now that they know what this defender is capable of, they can formulate a winning strategy to take him out.”
“And we all look forward to seeing how this will occur,” Evan adds before the screen resumes showing the battle in the passage way.
Chapter 64 – Wrestling
for the Sky
As the flying snakes draw closer to his position, Pablova Switchblades desperately fires a few arrows at them. However, nothing hits.
Jaden Windmaster stares the fliers. His lightning spells are not within range either and therefore they are useless. He could cast a “Shooting Star,” which brings an asteroid down to earth. However, the spell is more effective against stationary targets on the ground, rather than fliers which can dive to avoid the asteroid. Furthermore, the master level spell would drain his mana bar, and therefore the spell is not an option at this early juncture.
The fliers suddenly break off into two groups, with two heading toward Jaden’s position, and the other three heading toward the left side. Bolts of lightning leap out of the snakes’ mouths and hit the two guard stations on the ground! Crackle! Kaboom!
Raynor the Houndmaster launches his Far-Distance arrows as quickly as he could and manages to land several hits. One snake finally drops from the sky. He smiles briefly as he successfully avenge the comrades inside the guard stations.
“Meteor Swarm!” Tildan the Spyro calls out. Half-dozen balls of fire suddenly rain from the sky and hit the remaining two fliers above him. Unfortunately, the ensuing explosions knock the two defenders off their perch as well. “Darn,” the fire mage says as his avatar falls to the ground below. The next second, the player view screen turns black with a “Game Over” flashing in red.
“This is ridiculous,” the now dead player grouses as he pulls his virtual reality visor off his head. “Only thing I can do now is tune into the in-game stream, and cheer my comrades as a spectator,” Tildan sighs with disappointment. “And I hope Raynor won’t be too angry over his avatar’s death by friendly fire.”
* * *
“Wow! We just had a mishap there!” Evan says, as the replay of the Meteor Swarm and the aftermath is shown on the screen.
“No, I think that player decided to trade lives with the fliers,” Antoinette disagrees. “The guy just saw these cloud runners take out two guard stations, with the ten defenders inside along with these stations. So rather than allow the snakes to run around and throw more bolts, this player sacrificed himself and his partner to take them out of the game,” she reasons.
“Exactly as you said,” Richard agrees. “The fire mage made the smart play in that situation. Also, the Meteor Swarm spell will drain the player’s entire m
ana bar. So even if he manages to stay alive, a mage with no mana is a sitting duck. The spell caster simply exited the stage with a bow. I think he did a great job,” he compliments.
“I wouldn’t be too sure about that,” Charles disagrees. “After all, we still have two cloud runners remaining. I almost feel sorry for that spell caster fellow on the ground in front of them. Almost,” he grins.
“With that, let’s watch how the Eternian defender handles the two cloud runners by himself,” Evan says.
* * *
Jaden Windmaster slowly backs away from the gigantic snakes slithering in the sky above him. If I can only get closer to the lightning rod, he thinks as the spell caster moves further back. The rod is about twenty steps from the edge of the mountain top.
“Get a load of this,” Pietro the Tamer smirks at the backtracking spell caster. “I think we need to take him out before he can turn tail and run away. Don’t you agree, Carlos?” he asks.
“You can do the honors,” the leader of the squadron replies. He peers down at the ground and observes his comrades being decimated by a pole arm using Eternian fighter. “You need to hurry up, though. Our guys are getting killed down below,” he says with a frown on his face.
“What?” Pietro blurts out while keeping his eyes on the receding Eternian. “Are you serious? Someone managed to survive our bombs?”
“And he is killing our fighters. The Eternian warrior just took out six of them by himself. Looks like this man is the infamous Heimdall that Virgil warned us about,” Carlos suddenly remembers. “You take out that back peddling mage with your cloud runner’s lightning breath. I’m going to fry Heimdall with my mount’s lightning attack,” he orders. The squadron leader turns his mount around, and starts to descend into the chasm.
Pietro sees the spell caster casting a spell. “Uh-uh,” he says as the rider wills his mount to fire a lightning bolt at the mage on the ground.
The bolt starts to fly down toward the Eternian, but suddenly veers off course and hits the long steel rod behind the intended target instead. “What the,” Pietro starts with astonishment when his cloud runner smacks into something solid in mid-air. Both rider and mount feel something heavy press against them on all sides; the additional weight is beyond what the gigantic snake can carry in the air and it starts to drop down. The rider frantically pushes against the invisible wall; however the duo is solidly encased inside the weighty prison. The force of gravity pulls the two down the chasm and finally hits the ground with a loud “SMACK!”
* * *
“What did you just do?” Pablova asks when he finally reaches his partner. Tagging along as reinforcements are Yang the White, a priest, and Orlen Spellbinder, a non-specialist mage. Pablova had to pull the two from their ten o’clock position on the mountain top.
Ian Drexler and Ringo Starcaller, an archer and an air specialist, respectively, had to move up from their eight o’clock position to maintain the detection net on their side of the mountain.
Jaden salutes the newcomers. “I created a Wall of Air, and enclosed it around both the rider and mount. I guessed correctly that the snake cannot support the additional weight of the enclosed wall, and that’s why it fell to the ground,” he explains.
“Wow, that’s an ingenuous use of a Wall of Air,” Orlen remarks. “But doesn’t that spell drain mana for each second of duration?”
“Unfortunately, it does,” Jaden admits. “I’m down to half my mana bar now.”
“And that will be just enough to trap the remaining flier with another wall,” Pablova notes. “We saw two of those snakes got hit by Tildan’s Meteor Swarm. His partner took out another snake with arrows. So that leaves one snake to deal with.”
“Where is the snake now?” Jaden asks.
“It went down to provide air support to the Virtuan troops entering the pathway,” Yang answers while standing at the edge of the mountain top and peering down the chasm.
“Don’t just gawk at them! Cast something to hit the Virtuans!” Jaden admonishes the two spell casters. The mage looks across the chasm, and sees that reinforcements have arrived to reclaim the spot vacated by the previous defenders. Jaden waves his arms in the air to get their attention. Once he has it, the mage wiggles his fingers in the air to imitate casting a spell. Then he points down into the chasm.
* * *
“What the heck is he trying to say?” Brandon Ficklespell asks. I didn’t agree to enter this event to play a game of charades. “You have any idea what he wants?” the mage asks his partner.
Vicky the Wise gives a thumbs up and nods at her fellow defender on the other side of the chasm. “He wants us to start blasting the Virtuans at the end of the passage way, and support our guys blocking the path,” the priestess replies. “Heimdall is doing a great job keeping the invaders back so far,” she observes. “But once the Virtuan spell casters enter the picture, all bets are off.”
“Good grief,” Brandon rolls his eyes. “I don’t need him to tell me to blast those guys on the ground. I’m not an idiot.” He peers down and sees several spell casters looking up right at him. “Uh-oh! I think we’re getting spells heading our way!” he warns. “I’ll cast something quick. You back off. Now!” he orders. The generalist tries to find a spell that can be cast quickly. “Whirl-peet-neene-golda-quue-mirot-seize-kilow-jikow.”
“No,” the priestess starts to reply, but quickly shuts her mouth to avoid interrupting his spell.
* * *
The encased cloud runner drops to the ground with a loud “SPLAT!” The mount and rider land just a few yards right in front of Virgil and his remaining men.
The leader of Easy Money stares at the cloud runner incredulously. Finally he looks up and frowns. He sees Carlos coming down. Virgil turns to his three remaining spell casters, and chooses one of them. “Quan, I want you to back up until you see who is still on the mountain top. Cast something to take care of them. Blow your entire mana bar if you have to. Otherwise we’ll be sitting ducks when we enter the road again to challenge Heimdall,” he orders while glancing at the fighter a distance away from them.
The grim reaper is still glued to his spot in the middle of the road, perfectly content to run out the clock. Kassender and other spell casters are busy casting various protections on their tank.
“Yes sir!” the mage salutes and starts to head for the exit from the passage way.
Once the man disappears from view, someone in the party cries out a warning. “Incoming!”
Virgil looks up and sees fireballs heading towards him. The leader instinctively ducks but the spells fizzle some distance above his head.
“I’m glad my anti-magic shell activated just in time,” Diane Cross Bearer says proudly.
“Now send something back up!” Virgil barks. What the heck are these guys going to do without me?
“I’ll be casting blind though, because I don’t know where they are on the mountain,” Jaxon Pagone warns.
“Just hit the left side, then,” Virgil replies. “If nothing else, your spell will get them to back off while we deal with Heimdall.”
“Roger that,” the fire mage replies and starts preparing to cast a Firestorm to cover the left side of the chasm. The player switches over to magic screen view; he chooses a swath of land from the edge of the wall covering twelve feet and extends it five feet outward. Finally, the player clicks activate and the avatar automatically starts the chant while the spell component disappears from his inventory. “Ccchhhhhhhhrrrrrrrr.” Jaxon nods in satisfaction as droplets of fire rain down from the sky over the chosen area of land on the mountain top.
“Carlos!” Virgil yells out while pointing upward.
The cloud runner salutes in acknowledgement of the order, and commands his mount to head back up for mop up duties.
* * *
Brandon manages to finish casting “Earth Shake” right before his position is pelted by a Firestorm. The spell quickly drains his health bar down to zero, since there is no cover in the area
to shelter him from the deadly rain. Before his avatar dies, Brandon manages to turn around and sees that Vicky had foolishly decided to stay with him.
The player rips his virtual reality helmet off in disgust when the dreaded “Game Over” flashes on his view screen. “Unlike Vicky, at least I managed to a lick in before dying,” he says aloud. Unfortunately, the spell only does minor area of effect (“aoe”) damage. Hopefully it’ll be enough for Heimdall to finish them off, he thinks as Brandon quickly logs into the continuing stream.
* * *
“And there we have it, ladies and gentlemen! Our first spell war!” Evan says with glee for the camera. “Can we get a replay of the spell trade please?” the host requests. The screen quickly shows the exchange of Firestorm for Earth Shake.
The Virtuans are knocked to the ground by the spell, interrupting spell casting by other members of the party.
Richard politely claps at the volley of spells between the two sides. The event is going surprisingly well, with thirty four of his players still on the field compared to thirty for the Virtuans. The infighting amongst the other side has really hurt them.
“Why is Heimdall standing in the middle of the road, and allowing the Virtuans to regroup?” Antoinette asks.
“Is that what it looks like to you?” Richard responds with his own question. “Heimdall is in the perfect position along the road as a tank. He’s close enough to his support for the healers to send protection and heals his way. If he moves up to the breach in the abatis, where the Virtuans are standing right now, then Heimdall will lose his support. Of course, the healers could move up with him, but then they won’t be protecting the portal in case a Virtuan manages to sneak pass Heimdall via a rogue sneak ability or an invisibility spell,” the EDE chief executive explains patiently.
“Also, Heimdall doesn’t need to eliminate all the Virtuans from the field. If the clock runs out without a single Virtuan stepping through the portal, the Eternian side will win by default,” Evan points out.
World of Eternia: The Complete Collection Page 39