Keeper

by Tom Larcombe

  I hope this works, he thought. I think it should, but...

  Cast Accelerate Plant Growth, he thought.

  He envisioned the plant life closest to the Elite weaving itself around the goblin's ankles and lower body tightly enough to immobilize it. He also envisioned it doing the same to all the other goblins that were within the spell's area of affect.

  “Come on vines, come on plants. I know you're tougher than those stupid goblins. Wrap them up good and tight until Allie is ready for them.”

  He kept muttering similar things over and over as the plant life near the goblins reached out and began to writhe around their lower bodies. The Elite was trying to tear the vines off as they wrapped around him, but at least that meant he couldn't be attacking anyone in the party.

  Out of the corner of his eye he saw Karl appear behind the Elite Goblin Warrior, sinking his swords into the creature's back. Lucky must've been with him also because the Goblin almost tripped as it staggered forward from Karl's blows.

  Eddie was already feeling lightheaded and he knew the spell wasn't anywhere close to the end of its duration. He was intimately familiar with this spell and how to use it with Conjunction to make a woven wall, but evidently something about how he was using it now made it even more difficult. He wasn't sure if he'd given Allie her entire minute or not when everything went black and he felt himself falling.

  ~ ~ ~

  Chapter Nine

  Specialist Harmon skimmed the PM from Campbell quickly, then went back and read it thoroughly. He opened his command window and initiated a chat with Campbell, something that no player would've been able to do with the distance separating the two of them.

  “What do you mean you lost Olson?” Harmon asked.

  “Just like I said, we lost him. The last message he sent said that the village he was recruiting at was being attacked by a party of adventurers, but that he outleveled all of them and was sure of victory. The next thing I knew, I got the message that he'd left the group, just like you get when someone dies.”

  “He couldn't have died, he would've returned to his avatar here and he definitely hasn't. I'm the only one conscious here, everyone else is laid out like deadwood on their cots.”

  “I don't know what to tell you then, Specialist. I'm pretty sure he got killed. Unless he left the group for some other reason...”

  Meanwhile Harmon was busy tracking the unique mob ID of the Elite Goblin Warrior that had been assigned to Olson. It was no longer active, Olson had definitely died, but he couldn't track what had happened to the man's consciousness after that. It should've returned to his original avatar, but somehow it hadn't. He started cursing under his breath, forgetting that the chat window was still open. When Campbell asked him another question, he angrily closed the chat window and redoubled his efforts at trying to find out what had happened to a member of his squad.

  ~ ~ ~

  The blackness passed quickly. Fading out into the familiar gray he'd already experienced several times due to Conjunction. He was pretty sure he'd passed out for a split-second because once everything went gray the next thing he noticed was his head hitting the dirt. Fortunately it was relatively soft.

  “Dominic, keep an eye on Eddie,” Tiana called out.

  Eddie felt someone moving near him, but the only thing he saw other than gray was the flashing notification lights in his panel. He willed them away, then raised his arm and waved towards whoever was near. He just hoped it was Dominic and not one of the goblins.

  “He's moving on his own,” Dominic yelled out, close enough to set Eddie's ears ringing again.

  “Watch out for a shaman, Karl went for the big guy,” Eddie said, wanting to warn the group but not being coherent enough to use the group chat again yet.

  Dominic was apparently staying fairly close to Eddie. He was moving around, because Eddie kept hearing chanted spells coming from different spots nearby. Finally he managed to clear his vision, tears streaming down his cheeks once he did.

  Dominic was nearby, as Eddie had thought, moving from cover to cover while launching spells. Someone else was moving through the undergrowth nearby though and when Eddie drew his sword and turned to face it he nearly stabbed Lucky as she came leaping at him.

  She licked his face rapidly several times and Eddie grimaced.

  “Eew,” he said, “goblin breath is even worse than fish breath. Come on girl, let's finish these little green dudes off.”

  Eddie stood, blinking away the tears as he nocked an arrow. Looking for a target he saw an unfamiliar person facing off with the Elite. Jern and another person in plate mail that obscured their features were tag-teaming the Elite, Tiana behind them and providing healing for the two of them. Karl was nowhere to be seen again, but Dominic was right nearby, launching fiery arrows. He noticed Eddie standing and called out.

  “I'm almost out of mana,” Dominic said.

  There were still a few green figures standing in the village, most of them showing burns or other wounds. Eddie picked the one he thought was the worst wounded and started firing.

  Evidently Tiana, or maybe Karl, had told Lucky to guard him,or she'd decided it on her own, because the bobcat was crouched in front of him, snarling at the goblins in the village. Suddenly she snarled even louder, her vision turning to a spot on the far edge of the compound. Eddie followed her gaze and saw a small goblin, one that looked much older than all the warriors, adorned with feathers and bones.

  “Caster in play!” he shouted.

  “Where? I don't see it,” Dominic yelled back.

  Oh hell, I hope I'm not as low on mana as I was before, Eddie thought. Show Mana.

  Mana is low: 8/84

  Damn it, that was one of the notifications. What are the others.

  He pulled his notifications up, skimming then in a flash.

  You have upgraded Nature Magic to (3).

  You have upgraded the skill/spell Conjunction to (3). I warned you, but you wouldn't listen, would you?

  Eddie's head was pounding, as Dominic had described, but he was pretty sure that with eight mana left he hadn't overextended his mana pool. He was pretty sure this headache was just from the massive rush of mana he'd used. He took a deep breath and stepped forward so the shaman would be in range, hoping that his assumptions on Fox Fire's cost were correct otherwise he was about to overextend his mana.

  Cast Fox Fire, he thought, staring at the shaman.

  It had only been a second since Dominic had asked where the shaman was. As it started to glow, Eddie's headache surged, nearly dropping him again, but he called out.

  “The glowing one!”

  His notification lights were flashing at a rapid pace now and he pulled it up to see what he'd expected, or at least hoped, to see.

  Mana is low: 0/84

  A moment later Dominic shot a fiery arrow at the shaman. As expected, it fizzled out on a shield right in front of the goblin, but Dominic had other plans. He pulled a wand from his inventory, something Eddie hadn't seen him with before, and pointed it at the shaman.

  Three bolts of shimmering energy shot from the wand. The shield blocked the first of them, but the other two got through, staggering the goblin caster.

  “Lucky, get him,” Eddie called out, pointing towards the shaman, then returned to shooting the wounded goblins.

  Lucky started racing across the village, but before she reached the shaman the goblin pointed at her and she stopped dead. She shook her head several times, then turned back to the shaman, who had a look of amazement on his face. She continued forward and the shaman pointed at Eddie then winced. The shaman grabbed something from his pouch and ate it, then pointed again. Eddie's mind went all fuzzy and his body seemed to turn of its own accord, pointing his currently nocked arrow at Tiana.

  Fuck that! Eddie thought, exerting his willpower and trying to turn the bow back towards the wounded goblins in the village.

  A scream of pain from the shaman released Eddie's mind from the grip that had held it and he tu
rned back to see Lucky savaging the shaman's leg. He drew and fired at the shaman instead of the wounded goblins, watching his arrow strike directly in the shaman's chest.

  Dominic launched another set of three glowing missiles at the shaman with his wand as Lucky continued to tear at the shaman's legs. When he saw the shaman fall over, Eddie turned his attention back to the wounded goblins. There were only two left now so someone else must be working on them also since he remembered seeing four right before the shaman tried to control him.

  Then the door to one of the buildings flung open, an untouched goblin in chainmail and carrying a hammer running out.

  “Another fresh one,” Eddie called out.

  “He's mine, Tiana give me another heal. Eddie, can you Nature's Binding me?”

  The voice came from the other fully armored figure. It was feminine and familiar.

  “Allie?” Eddie asked, “Sorry, no can do. Out of mana.”

  She must've reverted to the role she used to play after the Elite showed up. That's why she wanted me to give her time, to get her heavy armor on so she could tank, Eddie thought.

  “Good enough,” Allie said. “Range him down as you can people. I'll hold him. Now come here you scrawny, green rodent.”

  The tower shield she carried covered almost her entire body. If she rested it on the ground, then only her head would show over it. She had a double-bitted battle ax in her other hand, which she somehow swung with ease, even while controlling the shield.

  Eddie nocked an arrow and fired, over and over. He could see why Allie had chosen a bow as her new primary weapon though. Even with all the armor, she was still nimble on her feet, dodging as many blows as she blocked with the shield.

  “This guy's a wimp, he's almost down already,” Allie called out.

  Eddie quickly evaluated the goblin, pausing his rain of arrows for a moment to do so.

  Goblin Smith (male):

  Type: Monster

  Level: 5

  Armor: 35

  Health 87 (+/-)

  Attack: ?

  You are currently unable to obtain more information about Goblin Smith (male) with Evaluate.

  “He's only a smith, level five,” Eddie yelled.

  Then he resumed firing.

  The smith couldn't seem to hit Allie. Her agility had to be on par with Eddie's with the dodging she was doing, and what strikes she couldn't dodge, she caught on her shield. Finally, after the smith had taken several arrows and a batch of Dominic's glowing missiles, Allie slammed her shield into him. The smith went sprawling and a moment later her ax slammed into his torso, finishing him.

  “Let's burn this place down,” Allie said, her voice grim.

  “Um, loot first?” Karl asked tentatively.

  “Yeah, that first,” she replied. “There might be some new stuff here, I've never seen a smith or an Elite anything in this village. Level ten is way over the rest of these guys.”

  Eddie shuffled over towards Allie and Karl. A glance showed him that Tiana was tending Jern.

  “What happened there?” he asked.

  “I might ask the same of you,” Dominic said, “What spell was that? I've never seen it before.”

  Allie answered first.

  “Jern was way outmatched by that elite, so I had to go back to this,” she said, shrugging and making her armor rattle. “But speaking of that.”

  She tucked her ax into her inventory, then started stripping off the heavier armor. A minute later she was back in her lighter armor, holding her bow.

  “I like this so much better,” she said. “But it's good to know that I can still tank when needed.”

  Dominic was still staring at Eddie.

  “Come on, give...” Dominic said, obviously willing to wait.

  Karl was starting to loot bodies, and Allie went with him to do the same.

  “Well, I showed you my new skill, right?”

  “Yeah, Conjunction?”

  “That's it. I used Conjunction to join Accelerated Plant Growth with Weaving. Focused on weaving all the vines and undergrowth around their ankles and legs.”

  “So, a custom entanglement spell? I always thought that that spell was too OP in table top games.”

  “Not so much here in Light Online, you saw what happened to me and that was with me at full mana and full stamina.”

  “How much did that cost you?” Dominic asked.

  “Nearly eighty mana, plus half my stamina. It costs less after the first time I do some particular combination, but the first time is a killer.”

  “You ain't kidding. Eighty mana in one shot would come close to knocking me out even and I don't imagine you have anywhere close to what I've got,” Dominic said.

  “So that problem you were talking about with using too much mana? I was wondering if it's based on raw numbers or a percentage of your total?”

  “Percentage based. Why what percent is eighty mana for you?”

  “Like ninety percent or higher I think? I barely had enough mana for that last Fox Fire on the shaman.”

  “Damn dude, you should've been out cold.”

  “I was, briefly. I only came to when my head hit the ground.”

  Dominic shook his head.

  “You've got to have a hell of a headache right now. Especially if you cast again right after doing that.”

  “Feels like Jern's using my head for a bell with his hammer as the clapper. Speaking of which, I want to check on him before I start looting. He's still down and Tiana's with him.”

  Dominic nodded, then headed for the shaman's body. When Eddie got over to Jern and Tiana he had to ask what the problem was since he couldn't see anything.

  “Fractured the leg he broke once already,” Tiana said. “That Elite got him but good in the side of the knee.”

  Her voice was cold and Eddie was taken aback. Then he remembered her telling him not to use his Conjunction in the middle of battle and it made sense.

  I'm going to have to do some groveling here, he thought.

  “Yeah, I was so freaked out over that Elite and what it could do that when Allie asked for a minute I did the only thing I could think of. I knew you were over here healing the two of them and with Allie doing something else I was worried he was going to get to you.”

  Tiana's expression softened, but only slightly.

  “And you knocked yourself out again! What if there had been a goblin right there in front of you, ready to stab you?” she asked.

  I wouldn't have done it if I wasn't clear, he thought, but I'm not going to say that.

  “I knew Dominic was right there next to me since I'd been covering him. I figured he'd do the same for me. I wasn't really out, only feeling kind of faint,” he fibbed.

  “Dominic isn't a tank,” Tiana said.

  “I'm sorry, but I couldn't just let that Elite cut through you, or Jern and Allie either. It looks like he was almost through Jern already.”

  “Don't drag me into this lad,” Jern said, a hint of pain to his voice. “Never argue with a woman, dwarf or human. You can't win even if you do win.”

  Tiana turned her glare on Jern, who tilted his head to where she couldn't see him and gave Eddie a wink.

  “Well, I'm sorry Tiana,” Eddie said, then he backed off and joined the looting.

  Allie was just coming out of the building that the smith had exited when she saw Eddie.

  “Hey Eddie, come on over here,” she called.

  He moved that way, still moving slowly since his head was pounding and his body aching.

  “Think Opron would like any of that?” she asked, pushing the door open.

  Inside was a small smithy. An anvil was against one wall, while a bunch of small molds were next to it. There was a bellows, made of leather and wood, and a central forge. Tools were scattered about the room as well. Tongs, small hammers, and lots of other things he couldn't recognize on sight.

  “Oh yeah,” Eddie said. “Maybe this stuff will get him up and running more quickly. I know he wa
s going to make his own anvil, but I bet he won't turn another one down. There's supposed to be spots for three smiths in the smithy I built him, I bet that means it'll hold three anvils also.”

  “Go for it, I don't think anyone else here would want any of it. We'll hold half the arrows for you from the other stuff also. We'll go through everything back at the inn though, I don't think we want to stay out here with odd creatures popping up that aren't supposed to be in the area.”

  “Good plan. The only other thing is anything that looks to be made of a half decent metal. Opron's been breaking down the lousy swords for metal so far, so I think that's going to be his choke point.”

  “You got it. Good work out there, by the way. I'd always kind of wondered if we should've grouped up with you and Karl to adventure, but after a couple of false starts it's been working well. You certainly came through in the clinch today.”

  “Don't encourage him,” Tiana said.

  She'd come up behind the two of them while they were talking about the smithy. Jern was limping along behind her and gave a shrug from behind her back.

  “What, I'm just telling him the truth. We might've gotten sent to respawn, but he would've been gone for good,” Allie said, gesturing towards Jern.

  Tiana flushed as she turned to the dwarf. She started to say something to him, then fled.

  “Aye, thank ye lad. You saved me butt today. I won't be forgetting it. Now let me see the hammer that that smith had, would you?”

  Allie pulled out the hammer and handed it to him. Jern examined it for a moment then handed it back.

  “Damned fool was using a smithing hammer for combat. It'll work, but a war hammer does the job better,” he said, bouncing his own hammer up and down for emphasis.

  Allie turned to Eddie and held out the hammer.

  “Might as well keep it with the rest of the smithing stuff,” she said.

  Jern and Allie wandered off to do more looting while Eddie went into the building and started shoving everything he could into his inventory.