by Xander Boyce
Katie increased the height of the walls in response, all three sides growing another two feet. Sarah cast her healing spell before returning to the fight. Drew was helpless, his spells useless in the small confines of their shelter. Mitch was fighting off the ravager and another orc that had joined the melee. Sarah and the knight were positioned on either side of him, darting in to stab or block an attack whenever there was an opening. He could see another Go’rai standing behind the melee, waiting for a chance to join in.
Drew considered the situation. The Go’rai clearly wanted him dead more than the others. They seemed to have something against red mages, or ‘Deathweavers.’ If he could draw them away, the others might be able to take on what was left, and he could use his spells without fear of hurting his allies.
Unfortunately, he was also trapped in the U-shaped box, and he wouldn’t survive trying to dodge past the ravager. Helpless, he recast his buff spells, knowing he would need them at their peak for what he was about to do, throwing another acid dart with little effect.
They couldn’t keep this up much longer, fatigue and numbers were against them. Drew needed to change the game.
He pulled up his star map, and with a thought, he inserted Major Blink Step into the available white node and clicked accept, and immediately his head seemed to explode. The xatherite instantly formed billions of new connections as he dropped to his knees with a groan, struggling to stay conscious through the pain. Wave after wave of agony seemed to eat away at his mental resistance, but he clawed his way through it, knowing that if he passed out now, he likely wouldn’t live long enough to wake up.
The pain diminished enough that he could see again. Katie was shouting at him, but any attempt to comprehend what she was saying sent lightning bolts of pain through his skull and he just shook his head. Immediately the warm feeling of Sarah’s cure spell filled his extremities.
The pain in his head subsided to the point that he could think again, and he put a hand to the conjured wall next to him, pushing himself up. How long had he been out? The last thing he remembered was that Sarah had just cast heal, but apparently the cooldown was already up? He could feel liquid trickling from his nose, but he forced himself to ignore it and take stock of the situation.
Mitch and Katie had managed to drop the Ravager while he blacked out; it looked like the Knight had jumped onto it and restricted it enough for the axe to cleave a gaping hole in its skull. The knight’s form was still trapped under the Ravager’s body. The two Go’rai had moved in, clubs out, since their javelins and atlatls were useless in the narrow approach path that was available to them. Chakri wasn’t visible, but it was only a matter of time before he arrived.
Drew didn’t think Mitch had much of a chance against the battleaxe he possessed. He needed to pull Chakri and as many of the orcs away from the group as possible. The direction he needed to pull them was easy enough; the orcs seemed to be able to see in the dark, an ability Drew did not share. If he could make it to the entrance, there would be light. Assuming it was daytime, but it was a better than wandering deeper into the darkness.
He shifted, moving closer to Sarah who had re-joined the fight on Mitch’s right side. He needed to be able to see as far out of the box as he could. “I’m going to try and draw them off.” His shout reverberated painfully in his head before he blink stepped past the melee.
Out of the box, he turned around to survey the battlefield. Five Go’rai were visible, the three from before, standing in a loose cluster and aiming javelins at the wall, waiting for Katie to dissolve it, Drew assumed. Taking advantage of their split attention, Drew sent a frostfire ball exploding against the middle one, sending all three to the ground, hopefully dead. The sound drew the attention of the other two Go’rai that had been fighting Mitch and the closest one shouted, “Deathweaver!” before turning back to his fight with Mitch.
From behind him, he heard a rush of air as someone swung a weapon. The blade barrier blocked the attack and yellow light shown from around him as his mana guard blocked a secondary effect he couldn’t see. Drew immediately cast a shock bolt, the blue energy shooting from his shoulder to whatever had attacked him from behind. Meanwhile, he turned and began running away from the group, another hand casting Cone of Frost behind him to slow down whoever had swung at him.
Drew didn’t risk a glance backward, but he could hear the grunt of pain as the Go’rai was hit by his spells.
Turning a corner, he barreled into two Go’rai that were moving to join the fight. He pushed one down, elbowing past the other. They both carried atlatls; he needed to get around the next corner before they could recover and target his back.
Ahead, he could just make out the next turn, some light ahead illuminating it. He might be able to launch another couple of spells at his attackers as they came around the bend, if he could get to it first. He pushed himself, seven or eight more steps and he turned around, his hands held high. Chakri was charging towards him, angry burn marks on his left side, and Drew launched the fireball he had been preparing at him.
With surprising agility, the Go’rai stopped his forward motion and dove away. The fireball exploded, throwing the orc into a cabinet, his leg hitting with a loud crashing sound. Drew turned and began running again. It was a mere forty feet to the last bend and the exit. He wanted to shout a taunt, but his breathing was already ragged, and his head felt like it was on fire.
He heard a whistling behind him and dove to the left, trying to avoid the javelins he knew were coming. His shoulder hit hard against the floor, and for a second his vision greyed out from the pain. He managed to force himself into a roll, pushing up off the ground with a moan. Only twenty feet to the corner. He clenched down on the pain, running harder than he had ever run, his heavy boots making him feel clumsy and slower than normal.
Ten feet left, then another telltale whistling. This time he tried to pivot off his left foot, sending him into the wall with a loud grunt, but the javelin passed him. He pushed against the wall, every part of his body feeling like it was on fire, but he couldn’t give up now.
Then he was around the corner. Ahead, for the first time in days, he saw the bright beam of natural light. It illuminated the thing he should have been expecting but hadn’t: a barricade. Cube farm walls and desks had been piled six feet high, forming a wall that would take several seconds to climb, several seconds where he would be completely exposed to the javelins behind him, not to mention the three Go’rai who were sitting around a small table, their weapons close at hand. He charged forward, hoping to get close enough to cone of frostfire them before they could get their weapons out.
Chapter Fourteen — Chakri
The look on the three Go’rai faces was one of surprise. They were all holding cups and dice, Drew assumed it was some form of gambling. He made it halfway to them before they understood the situation well enough to respond. Unfortunately for them, Drew only needed a couple more steps by then. His cone of frostfire engulfed them and froze two in place, but the third was partially shielded by the closest orc’s body and went down clutching his face and screaming in pain.
Drew swerved slightly to avoid the treacherous terrain created by his most recent cone. He launched a shocking bolt at the screaming Go’rai, and then for good measure cast acid dart, the glob of acid landing on its forehead above the unburned eye. Drew hoped that was enough to keep it out of the fight as he pivoted, facing the hallway he had just come from.
Using the break to take a quick mental inventory. He was down at least one block from blade barrier and some of the strength of mana guard from that unexpected attack after he blink stepped. He thought frostfire ball was available again, but the feedback he experienced last time he had cast a spell before its cooldown was up scared him away from trying it. All his storm spells but frostfire were available, and he’d love to cast refresh, but he didn’t dare take the time to cast it. Dancing blade fell into the same category. Blink Step was probably halfway off cooldown at this point, while bo
th cones were still recovering.
The pursuit still hadn’t rounded the corner, but he could hear them coming. Drew made a quick decision to begin the cast for firestorm, hoping to catch all three of his pursuers within it as soon as they came around the bend. He elongated the last few hand seals, delaying the five-second cast by a precious second and a half. He finished the cast right as the first of the three orcs rounded the bend, the dry heat of the firestorm blowing past him as it raged into existence.
A bone club whistled past his shoulder; the last remaining Go’rai sentry had made its way over to him while he cast the firestorm. His blade barrier caught the blow and Drew twisted so he could see the sentinel. A shock bolt expelled with a thought from his elbow, blue light illuminating the ugly face near him.
Drew backpedaled, trying to open some space between him and the orc. He then launched a fireball over the orc’s shoulder, aiming for the explosion to take it in the back while missing him. The shockwave from the explosion knocked him back and to the ground, sliding across the carpet. The scent of burning flesh filled his nose as he sat up with a groan. His head dazed, he looked around. The firestorm was still raging, but otherwise, he was alone in the hallway. He cast refresh, which didn’t seem to renew him as much as he would have liked, before standing up with another groan.
His head still pounded from slotting Blink Step. In all, he was pretty battered from the fight, and he sensed it would take a few more castings of refresh and another cure or two to get him back to normal condition. Suddenly the air went quiet, firestorm’s energy spent. He studied the darkening gloom carefully. He took another glowrock out of his pocket and held it up as he advanced towards the corner. The mad rush had been in darkness, using the faint light from the party behind him and the blockaded entrance to guide him. He paused and cast dancing blade, unsure of what would be waiting for him around the corner.
He bounced the glowrock against the far wall, extending his vision further into the hallway as he drew the last one from his pocket. He edged around the corner, a frostfire ball ready to target any waiting Go’rai. He saw two silent forms on the floor, burned by the storm he had conjured.
“You will pay for their deaths, Red Mage.” Chakri’s disembodied voice echoed through the hallway.
“You started this. You attacked us first.” Drew’s eyes flickered back and forth, looking for the charging form of the Orc.
“Your kind has hunted the Natren for millennia, the War Gods of the Iron Fleets bring only death and suffering in their wake.” Drew thought Chakri’s voice came from the left. In the space there was a large cube farm, much too big for his small light to illuminate. He briefly considered launching his last glowrock, but Drew couldn’t be sure he was on the left; the echoes made it hard to determine Chakri’s direction.
“I haven’t hurt any Natren; we’re just trying to leave this accursed hole.” Drew edged forward, heading towards the glowrock he’d thrown earlier.
“Foolish child, the Natren are all the clans. We cannot allow another Deathweaver to ascend. You are skilled, particularly for one so inexperienced. Allowing you to live would be to abandon numberless children of the Natren to their deaths. I will hunt you through your world like your kind have hunted mine through the stars.”
Drew realized how stupid he was being. The others were possibly dying, and he didn’t need to know the Orc’s exact location; he dropped the glowrock and then began casting frost storm. Chakri, seeing the mage begin his casting, bellowed and charged, his large form a darker black to Drew’s right.
Drew dropped the frost storm cast, immediately double casting frostfire ball and fireball, both streaming towards the Orc, who was limping still. Chakri was still fast enough to pivot, a skill flaring as a yellow glow surrounded him, protecting him from the blast as he lunged away from the explosive magic.
Drew launched an acid dart at his prone figure, which also raised yellow light as Chakri’s shielding spell blocked the damage. The orc grunted and stood up, wiping green blood from his mouth with a backhand while the other grabbed his dropped great axe. “You are all out of tricks Deathweaver. How you have so many spells so early I am not sure, but I will destroy you.” He had stalked forward as he said this, Drew backing up at the same time.
Drew’s last few spells needed the Orc to be closer, but the length of the axe made him leery. Dancing blade had a small amount of time left, and he had one more block from blade guard. He stopped his retreat and waited for Chakri to come to him. When he was about 15 feet away, another cone of frost coated the ground between them, the orc stepping back in time to avoid getting damaged by its blast.
“Come, Human, my axe will taste your blood!” His heavy feet stomped through the ice, which cracked under his weight, but didn’t cause him to slip.
Drew waited until the Orc was within 10 feet this time, cone of frostfire catching his legs and burning away at the exposed skin it encased in ice. With a grunt-filled with equal parts pain and anger, the orc lurched forward, his axe flying straight for Drew’s midsection. The dancing blade struck at Chakri’s shoulder, though the cockroach chitin blocked any damage.
A piece of debris caught under Drew’s foot and he stumbled, the ensuing axe barely blocked by his last remaining blade barrier charge. A shocking bolt connected his palm to Chakri’s face. The orc merely grunted again and reversed the swing of his axe. Drew watched the axe descend, but he already knew he wasn’t going to be fast enough to dodge this one; in a close combat fight, the orc had all the advantages. So instead he blinked away.
“Goodbye Chakri,” he said, as his fingers formed the seals of ice storm. The slowed orc bellowed in anger as his axe split the head of Drew’s afterimage. Chakri attempted to cover the distance between them, but it was a futile gesture, as his haste caused him to slip on the ice and land sprawled on the floor. His eyes glared at Drew with utter malice before disappearing into the storm.
Drew turned, his energy spent again. The adrenaline that had kept him moving quickly disappeared as he saw the blinking notifications at the edge of his vision: the system telling him he was out of combat. He ignored them, hurrying back to where he had left the others.
The area near the summoned walls was deathly silent. Two Go’rai corpses lay before the visible portion of the walls, and he picked up the pace. Limping around the corner, he was sure he had landed on his ankle wrong when he stumbled; it burned with pain, but his boots had prevented any serious injury.
Turning the corner, Drew nearly impaled himself on the spear Katie thrust at him, averting it at the last moment when she saw who it was. Her face was pale, and Mitch and Sarah lay unmoving on the floor. Another Go’rai lay dead between them. “They’re all dead.”
Katie took a moment to process his words and then dropped the spear, heading towards Sarah. The brunette dropped to her knees, her fingers feeling for a pulse. Meanwhile, Drew did the same for Mitch. The fight was strangely devoid of red blood, although there were plenty of green stains on the carpet. The clubs the orcs wielded more often did internal damage and broke bones rather than cut flesh. Drew pushed his fingers against Mitch’s carotid artery, leaving it there for a few seconds, but there was no pulse.
Looking over at Katie who had been doing similar actions to Sarah, “She’s alive!” Katie exclaimed. Drew shuffled over to her, pushing the body of the orc off Sarah’s legs, where it had fallen. One of the Ensign’s legs was bent in the wrong direction, and there were a couple of lesions visible where her clothing had been torn by the blows.
“What do we do?” he asked Katie, who had been checking for breathing.
“I--I don’t know, she’s got a pulse and is breathing. I think she hit her head.” Katie began slowly feeling around Sarah’s head for any wounds, trying not to move her spine as she did so. Her hands came back clean.
Drew sat back on his heels, “Mitch is dead,” he said, looking at Sarah’s immobile form.
Katie leaned back as well, glancing over at Drew, a pleading look in
her eyes, “What do we do? I don’t know how to help her.” Katie echoed his words while Drew looked around and cast replenishing rain. The warm water was refreshing, but the Ensign remained unconscious.
“Maybe Chakri has a healing xatherite?” he said, realizing that he hadn’t stayed around long enough to see if the orc had grown any crystals. “Stay here, put up another wall so nothing can get in, and I’ll be right back.” He stood up with another groan and trudged back to where he had last seen Chakri. The storm had not been kind to him.
The cockroach armor he wore had cracked in several places, while several particularly deep wounds looked like shards of ice had dug into his body. Drew flipped the orc over, a difficult prospect given his mass. Growing up from his chest were four xatherite. The yellow, violet, and orange glows were dim compared to the white crystal that grew from his sternum.
Drew touched all four, too tired to do more than blink at the white xatherite. They flared with light and then disappeared as he did so. He turned, heading back towards Katie as he willed the notifications to appear.
Congratulations, citizen. You have defeated the first Manaborn dungeon boss on your world. As a reward, you will receive a white xatherite.
Congratulations, citizen. You have reached level 1. Due to your membership in the Navy of the Human Protectorate, you have advanced to the rank of Seaman Apprentice.
Congratulations, Seaman. Due to your designation as an Assault Mage, you have been inducted into the Knightly Order of the Dragon. Since there are no senior Knights in close proximity to your location, the accolade ceremony has been deferred.
Congratulations, Seaman. As a member of the Order of the Dragon, you have been promoted to the rank of Midshipman.