Benvari Mountains (Emerilia Book 2)

by Michael Chatfield

  “Of course, she did. She’s pregnant. You want someone wandering around your house if your loved one was pregnant?” Malsour asked.

  That made Bendel and his group pause.

  “Eh, it’s just a game. Seems that they just got all wrapped up in it.” Helen shrugged and looked to Bendel.

  The others seemed to agree. Taking down the Dragon while she was weak was the best way for them to get their loot while they could.

  Bendel looked at the large hallway just a few feet from where he stood. Must be where the Dragon is. Definitely, can’t fit in the small door behind this lot.

  “Please, don’t do anything rash,” Dave said.

  “Well, unless you can get us all suits of armor from the Lady of Light, then I’d say there ain’t much you can do to stop us.” Wallace shrugged with his sword and shield.

  “Well, if you do attack, I can promise you that you will never be able to get into a Dwarven mountain, buy their goods, or get your gear repaired by them,” Dave said.

  “You’ve got some balls for a level 3. I’ll give you that, but there ain’t no way you can do that,” Bendel chimed in, rolling his eyes.

  “Well, I warned you.” Dave shrugged.

  Right then, the tunnel that led down into the large corridor seemed to shiver before earth, roots, and rocks caved in, filling the entire area. The path through the corridor had been blocked but the one behind the other group was still open.

  Bendel looked to those around him. He didn’t like PK’ing, but these guys were in their way and nothing was going to keep them from that reward.

  With a yell, they charged forward at the other party.

  ***

  Anna deflected a Mana bolt with a flick of her sword. A red skull now appeared over the opposing party.

  Malsour and Dave cast buffs, increasing speed, regeneration, and strength and linking everyone to the soul gems.

  Dave gave power to his first conjuration. An arrow appeared in his hand as he pulled it back. Identical arrows in a quiver were on his and Deia’s back. They let loose with the arrows as Malsour turned the floor from dirt and stone into dangerous spikes. Three were impaled by the spikes. Malsour quickly expanded the spike that had caught them, up and through their body. Metal trees ripped through the attackers.

  Suzy closed her eyes, moving her hands and talking to herself. Using the spikes and materials Malsour had been so kind to raise from the floor, she combined them with the power of her Mana. Her rune, sensing the change in the output of Mana, went from taking it to restoring it. She went well beyond her limits as her eyes glowed with magical intent.

  Tentacles of dirt whipped out, grabbing those who were trying to dodge the growing field of spikes or giving Dave and Deia the opportunity to hit them with arrows.

  Party Chat

  Deia > Hit the lowest level targets first and work higher. Dave, as soon as they get closer, move to the front to assist Anna. Suzy, be ready with Health potions and keep up distractions.

  Dave let loose an arrow into a man with a shield and mace. He’d studied everyone’s weapons as they’d traveled. He pulled out a new arrow, closing his eyes and concentrating on the two-handed sword that Anna was using.

  He focused; his pre-set runes flashed into existence on the blade. They were blue runes and a faint frost covered the blade. Anna swung and connected with a bear of a woman who was using her shield as a battering ram. The woman’s shield was dented badly as she was diverted to the side.

  Anna turned, using momentum and the weight of the sword. The woman made to deflect the blade, but it wasn’t the real attack. Anna kicked the woman’s shield, sending her back a few feet.

  Party Chat

  Anna > Malsour!

  The shield maiden fell. A metal spike branching off the moving sea of them drove into her neck and then up through her brain.

  Dave saw it out the corner of his eye as he watched a thin man teleport behind Anna. Dave and Deia’s arrows were there to meet him. Deia’s arrow worked its way through the unarmored rear of his knee as Dave’s hit the man’s back.

  “Are you fucking kidding me!” The man used his good left leg to try to get out of the way. “I took a fucking arrow to the knee!” The man might be injured but he was still mobile and out of Anna’s range.

  “Dave, go!” Deia said.

  Dave put his compound bow away; he grabbed his twin axes and conjured Magical Circuits on them.

  Two more had fallen to Malsour’s spikes. Yet the others left were using any method they had to get closer. A man with a massive two-handed axe clashed with Anna. A dull golden light surrounded him.

  Anna turned and weaved away.

  Dave felt strength surge through him as he brought his axes high and low. His shoulder faced the other party as a man sent a spell at him. Dave hadn’t been idle. Armed with the information that he had gained on spells, the lightning bolt disintegrated, the errant power adding to Dave’s reserves.

  The caster looked shocked but Dave didn’t have time to study them more as a man with a sword and a dagger closed in with him. Dave turned the initial attack, his axes moving out of reflex and training. He twirled his blades to deflect hits. His opponent was good, but then he used a skill.

  Dave saw the positioning. With his increased Intelligence, it felt as if his mind could remember everything in his life. It was easier for him to make connections between things. In battle, one might not think that was useful.

  Right now, Dave remembered watching the same skill being used in the tournament held in Cliff-Hill just a few months ago.

  Dave weaved out of the way of the attack. Getting behind his opponent, he threw his axe backward and turned with it. The spike on the rear of the axe slammed into the attacker’s helmet but their armor was too high to allow Dave’s axe entry.

  I’m making new damned axes when I get to Benvari.

  Party Chat

  Deia > Get down, Dave.

  Dave had been too focused on the fight and not using his Touch. A rogue used this opportunity to get behind him. Dave rolled to the side. Deia’s arrow slammed into their breastplate. Malsour’s spikes rose up to catch them but the rogue dodged out of their way and moved in on Dave.

  Dave stood up and into a fight with the dagger-wielding rogue. Dave created a Mana shield, sending it at the rogue’s feet. They fell forward. Dave’s point came down on the opening between their helmet and cuirass.

  Dave left the axe there, jumping back and out of the way of his first attacker’s long blade. Dave conjured a new axe in his hand, this one leaking gray smoke as he moved in with his attacks.

  His opponent seemed to have blood on the side of his face. It looked as though Dave had hit him hard enough to wound, but not enough to put him out of the fight. Dave sensed that Anna was now fighting three people, holding them all at bay while a second was moving for Dave.

  Probably think that I’m pretty easy, being a level 3 and all. A smile formed on Dave’s face.

  Deia came in, a maelstrom of twin blades. She cut down one of Anna’s attackers, taking them out at the knees before she drove her blade up and through their armpit.

  Dave conjured her a new blade as the woman she’d stabbed fell to the ground.

  Anna didn’t spare them a second glance. The golden glowing axe man was going for all he was worth. Anna was able to hold him and another off but the rest of the opposing party was now getting through the field of metal spikes.

  Dave dodged a blast of fire, putting him right into the path of his melee attacker. Dave increased his buffs, activating his magical shield as he fought off his attacker’s quick melee. Magical attacks soared between the parties and slammed into Malsour’s shield.

  Dave slammed his foot down on his opponent’s, making them yell. The conjured axe turned into a sword; Dave extended it as fast as a spear through the attacker’s neck and out the other side. Dave dismissed the sword as the attacker made weak attacks, their body already failing.

  “You’re pretty strong
for a level 3.” A woman attacked Dave with a flurry of punches and kicks that seemed to meld into one another.

  “Well, you’re pretty good for a bunch of Action users.” Dave found the rhythm of her attacks and pressed back.

  The woman’s confident sneer turned into a serious frown as she found herself attacking, only to have Dave counterattack into her weaknesses.

  He wasn’t getting much of her Health per hit as her passive defenses were good, but he was still taking them down quickly.

  She found herself on the defensive, but then her defenses were focused to block against direct attacks.

  Dave slammed his axes into her armored forearms. She backed away, getting closer to the mages and archers who had been focusing on the others but now turned to Dave.

  Dave slammed an axe into her arms and let loose a stream of fire from his hand as it passed over. The flames got inside the woman’s open helmet, ruining her face. She fell to the ground, rolling in agony.

  Dave dodged an arrow without really thinking of it and brought his boot down on the woman’s head, twice.

  The second time, her helmet deformed and her body started to fall away.

  Dave now had the full attention of the seven mages and three archers who stood close enough to the fight that Malsour couldn’t use his spikes, but far enough away that they weren’t a hindrance to the five remaining melee fighters.

  Dave sensed Malsour behind him. Dave ran to Deia, getting out of the man’s way.

  Javelins of metal fired past him. An archer fell to the attack; two of the mages’ shields colored slightly with the impacts.

  Malsour fired dozens of metal javelins at his two targets. They went from offense to defense quickly.

  Suzy got hit with a slash of wind. It broke her barrier and sent her tumbling.

  Dave looked over. She was missing her leg and arm, and her face was mangled. She was letting out painful keening noises, but there was nothing he could do.

  “Deia, torch them.” Dave slammed into one of the two who surrounded Deia. He watched Anna take off another Player’s leg and then head in a single motion, turning it into a block that tore through another’s defenses and brought a claw across their face and kicked them backward.

  Dave took the attention of the Players as Deia weaved out of their attacks. She sent a blue stream of fire right through the attacker Dave wasn’t fighting, melting their armor and insides, and boiling them from the inside out.

  They dropped dead as Anna stopped the man with a big axe’s attack with just one hand on her great sword and punched him in the face. He rolled back and then Anna was the one attacking. She came in, her attacks fast and hard, chipping away at his Health instead of trying to get through all the heavy armor he wore.

  Dave focused on his fight.

  “Dave, move!” Deia called.

  Dave did so. A lance of plasma took off his opponent’s head. Dave turned to look at Anna taking out the last melee fighter.

  Two mages fired an attack at Anna. She turned; energy came from her blade and slammed into the spell, tearing it apart as she rushed forward. Malsour cracked the two mages he was working on. New spikes erupted from the ground, piercing the attackers and taking them apart.

  Four mages remained. Deia created four streams of blue flames that crashed into the two remaining mages’ shields.

  Anna moved in on one of the last archers. Dave went for the other.

  They tried to run but Suzy’s creations were hiding. It tripped the archer and Dave jumped, flipping his axes around, and conjured bigger and sharper spikes on the back of them. He slammed into the archer and his axe’s spikes went through their head.

  He turned to advance on the two mages Deia was lighting up, only to see Deia and Malsour’s spells overwhelming the mages’ defenses and drive through the two casters.

  “Well shit, that was pretty damned impressive,” the hopping rogue said.

  Anna moved toward him.

  “Whoa, don’t worry. Everything’s sheathed and I’m the only one left. Plus…” He paused, a big grin on his face. “I took an arrow to the knee.” He broke out in laughter, looking at the arrow and then everyone else. “Will you look at it? Right through! Can’t make that shit up! Oh God, ah, laughing so hard I’m crying!”

  Dave looked at the others and then back to the single remaining fighter. A red skull with a five-minute timer counted down above his head.

  “Well, thank you for the fight. Not many people willing to go toe-to-toe with our group anymore. Guess I shouldn’t underestimate you lower-level ones. Oh, and if you are going to take our gear, I’ll give you three hundred gold for my gear. Kind of like the old get-up. Anyway, hope to see you again sometime! Keep my offer in mind—the name’s Justin. See y’all!” Justin smiled, his hand a blur as he grabbed his dagger and slammed it into his forehead.

  He dropped to the ground, his stupid smile still on his face.

  Dave moved to Suzy, who was a bleeding mess at the rear of the cave.

  “Hey, Suzy.” Dave healed her wounds but couldn’t do anything for the stumps.

  “Can’t repair that damage with magic,” Anna said.

  “I’m sorry.” Deia put a hand on Dave’s arm.

  “Ah, no worries. We’ll just kill her and then she can do a move to the party’s location.” Dave shrugged.

  Deia, Anna, and Malsour looked at one another.

  Dave created a simple dagger, putting it in Suzy’s hand.

  “All right, stab me and then I’ll kill you. Don’t want to be a PK but if you attack me and don’t kill me then I attack you—it’s all self-defense.”

  “Damn game dynamics,” Suzy complained as she stabbed Dave’s left hand.

  A lance appeared from Dave’s hand and drove through Suzy’s head before she had time to say anything else.

  “Dave, what are you doing?” Anna’s blade moved higher.

  “Well, Suzy will respawn in six hours without all of her body messed up. Then, since she’s in a party with us, she can just warp to us. Sure, it’ll cost her quite a bit of gold to warp that far. She’ll lose some overall experience and thus levels for dying, but she earned her higher attributes instead of using her stat points at every level so she won’t lose more than a few unclaimed levels that she can get back after some quests. Me killing her just put her out of her misery. It’s much easier than trying to heal those wounds or deal with them. She gets a brand new body right away,” Dave said.

  “What will happen while she is respawning?” Induca asked.

  “You just get kicked out into this place called your home. You can design it as you like, interact with a game and play with the markets. You can even re-organize your gear, sleep, shower, watch TV, and send emails. It’s a bridge between Earth’s simulation and Emerilia,” Dave said.

  “The more I think about it, the more I see how Player’s dying turns into a certain tactic. Even that other one with an arrow to his knee.” Deia pointed to where there looked to be a blue crystal floating. An icon showed that there was loot to be had.

  “Well, let’s get this all cleaned up.” Dave looked at the blackened hallway filled with metal spikes.

  The spikes disappeared into the ground as everyone moved to gather up the loot. Dave stored Suzy’s gear in his own bag.

  “Well, that could’ve ended a lot differently,” Deia said as they worked.

  “Nearly all of them were using actions. After a while, it gets easy to read which actions they’re going to use, making it simple to move through them. Have to watch out though—after some time, Players will mimic certain movements but they will have complete control of their bodies, trying to lull you into a sense of comfort before they bring a hammer down on your head,” Anna said.

  “That has to take some coordination to know all of the movements by heart to trick someone into thinking that you’re just using actions,” Dave said.

  “Yes, but when it’s Player against Player, in the later stages they start to be the only challengers
that the Humans have. Especially when the Jukal start closing the portals to the other realms and the POE have been diminished greatly due to the loss of life and subsequent loss of knowledge.”

  “Huh, well, I hope we don’t get to that stage. Hopefully we can divert people’s attentions away from fighting one another and towards fighting these damned gods. I’m getting annoyed with all the little quests and activities that they’re giving their people, as if it’s easy to just slaughter a bunch of POEs to disturb the power balance in their favor.”

  “I don’t think this was about disturbing the power balance, at least not directly,” Malsour said. Everyone looked towards him. “Dragons are the most complex Creatures of Power that have ever been created. It took thousands of years for the Lady of Fire to accumulate enough knowledge in order to create us. In the beginning, we weren’t even able to become Human. She worked and worked until finally getting us to this stage. With, I think, a bit of help from Anna and her father.”

  Anna shrugged, admitting that she and her father had a role to play in their creation.

  “Anna, how old are you?” Deia asked.

  “Haven’t you heard that it’s rude to ask a lady how old she is?” Anna smiled before she sighed. “Technically, I am three years older than when Emerilia was first created.”

  “Huh, I think dinosaurs were still around then.” Dave tapped his chin in thought, with a mischievous grin.

  “Not that old. In fact, I’m about eighty years younger than Father.”

  “You said technically you’re that old, why?” Deia asked.

  “Because I went into hibernation. I placed this body into stasis, using my circuits to continue helping Father run Emerilia but keeping my emotions contained,” Anna said.

  Dave could see the sadness in her eyes. “Then why did he wake you up?”

  “Well, that is a question for later.” Anna smiled. Her eyes fell on Dave and twitched to where Suzy’s corpse had been.