by Charles Dean
Valerie looked over and saw Minx staring in the same direction as her. So the little kitty can hear it too, she laughed to herself. She could tell that many people thought Minx was slow, dull-witted and painfully stupid, but never once took into account that this was a game. Minx was role-playing like the rest of them. Or, at least, that was the only way Valerie could make sense of her constantly changing personality.
Is Minx going to say something, or should I? Valerie wondered, but then something else caught her eye. It was Tim walking out of the forest from another direction. He looked like an angel with his majestic wings and sculpted face as he ran out of the woods to her left, trying to say something. No sooner had he run out of the woods than he jerked to a halt. This has to be a memory of when he came to save me. When he kissed me . . . When he . . . Tim opened his mouth and blood came out. When he died.
Why am I remembering this now? Valerie wondered, looking around Tim for clues. Tim was stabbed in the back by someone he didn’t see coming. That’s right! What if there is more than one group coming? What if this group is noisy, but the other one isn’t? Perhaps, like Tim, the first group will reach its prize only to discover far too late that there is another party at play and that its knife will sink too deeply for them to act. “If that’s the case . . .” she mumbled, almost inaudibly, to herself. “If that’s the case, the second group would be easy to pick off after the conflict. We’d go from fighting two hard groups to one injured one . . .” she finished her thought aloud. The others, who had still been playing at the conversation where Mclean explained, Daniel listened and Kass spoke before thinking, all stopped and looked at Valerie.
“What’s up, Val?” Daniel asked, looking over in the direction she was facing.
“We’re going to get attacked. There are two groups coming at us. They aren’t together though . . .” Valerie trailed off as her mind drew a map of where and when they’d hit. Their paces, the sounds, were coming at a steady rate. One group was quiet, and the other was noisy, but they were almost even in size.
“They’re coming from two different directions?”
“Yeah, and their makeup isn’t identical at all. They will hit us in waves if we stay here. They will be separated by about ten or fifteen minutes.” Valerie was doing the math in her head faster than she knew she was even capable of. “They will catch us off guard and kill us easily,” she stated, not as a threat but as a fact. This wasn’t going to be a fight that would go their way, but she knew what she had to do. She had to show one of them hope, and let them stab the other group in the back. I have to Tim one of them . . . Did I just use Tim as a verb? She laughed to herself and then sighed. Okay, now how do I get this plan to work while using this motley crew of damage dealers and scouts. She looked out into the trees. Do I even need them? They will just slow me down. But if I keep them here and let them do nothing . . . then they might actually serve a purpose and be useful as something other than the deadweight they’d currently be in a large-scale fight. Except Kass. That chick’s ice spells are okay. That’s perfect. That’s exactly what I need to do, she thought, excited by her idea.
“Kass, grab a mount. We’re heading out,” Valerie said with a smile and then took up into the air. “The rest of you, stay here and defend the fort. Try to hold everyone off without using Alex.”
Now, all I need to do is position them right and then lie. Valerie felt happier by the minute as the plan came together in her head.
“Come on, Toothifer!” Kass called out without a moment’s hesitation. “I need a mount!” As soon as she called, a giant Blue-Drake came bounding over to her. It was just like a dog lick-attacking a master who had been away.
Valerie, not wanting to watch the messy scene of Drakely affection, took off in the direction of the closest group. Alright, let’s get there quickly. “You coming, Kass?” she shouted behind her, and the sound of the Blue-Drake’s flapping wings answered her question almost as soon as she even asked it.
They move and follow without being asked. That’s good, Valerie thought as she flew closer to her target. She didn’t have to explain anything. Everyone just trusted her. Alright, now to make sure phase two will work. “Kass, you have an Area of Effect snare, right?” Valerie made sure to double check. Everything was hinging on the assumption that she would have a skill to match their need.
“Yeah. I have one, I guess,” Kass answered.
You guess? How do you not know if you have an ability or not? Valerie wanted to facepalm. “Well, what attack do you have?”
“Winter is Coming. It’s kind of a ground-root-snare. The problem is that it takes a while to actually cast, and it can only hit so many people at once,” Kass explained.
“Could you use it to slow a group of about thirty to forty people down by about ten minutes?” Valerie asked, needing the numbers to match up correctly.
“No, not at all. The most I could stall them is roughly five to six, give or take. If I try any longer, then I’m going to get shot out of the sky or just murdered outright,” she grimaced.
So, even if you talk without thinking, when you do think, you’re not so bad at knowing your own limitations. Alright, let’s see how far off you are from that number. “That will have to do.”
“Should I start channeling it so it's ready when we arrive?” Kass asked.
“You can do that?” Valerie looked at her strangely. This wasn’t something she had read about on the boards. In fact, one of the biggest weaknesses of the mage class was that they were almost completely ineffective for several minutes at a time during a large-scale fight--unless they went the one-on-one route, at which point other damage dealing classes generally had an advantage in output potential.
“Yeah, I actually figured out how to do it when we were leveling the other day,” Kass beamed triumphantly. “Once I got the trick, it actually didn’t seem that hard.”
You just figured out how to do something that no-one can reportedly duplicate? What the . . . Valerie started to fume, but then relaxed, calming herself down. Some people are just born with very specialized gifts, I suppose. Although, her father does work for the game developers, so a bit of nepotism might be involved. “Alright, start channeling it now. Make sure the effect is as big as possible.”
“Okay, let’s do this!” Kass excitedly grabbed her staff and began her channeling.
What was bothering her at the base that isn’t now? Valerie knew she was missing a piece in this mood shift. What is she worried about when she’s near the base that has her constantly looking over her shoulder? “That’s the spirit. I’m going to rush ahead and bring them to this spot. Aim it on the ground right there.” Valerie pointed to a large clearing. “When you get to the point where your area of effect snares won’t work anymore, just dash as fast as you can back to Minx and them to play defense.” Before Kass could even give an affirmative reply, Valerie took off in the direction of the first oncoming group.
Valerie looked down at her arm. Hmm. . . Right now, I won’t sell it at all, she thought, remembering her plan. Okay, how about this. She took a branch, used it to gash her own shoulder and then finished the flight, blood trickling down her arm and dripping onto the leaves below. As she closed in on the group, which wasn’t more than two minutes away from the position where she had left Kass, she started yelling, “QUICK! QUICK! The boss is almost dead, but so is our group! We need help quick! We’ll split the reward. Come on! Hurry!” she pleaded in her best desperate voice, hoping her battered appearance and the promise of reward would scuttle their brains too fast to think straight.
“We’re coming!” one of the stone-covered men yelled, dashing after her.
“Come on! Hurry!” Valerie yelled at the group. “One of the mini-bosses is chasing me!”
“Don’t worry! We’ll save you! But we better get a good split of this reward!” the Earth-Walker said as he and his guild followed Valerie back to Kass’s location.
When Valerie finally returned to Kass with the group, the spell
was complete. The Earth-Walker and his guildmates were caught in the chains of ice that sprung out of the ground. Seeing the spell go off without a hitch, Kass turned away and ran back to the base.
Excellent. Valerie smiled as she pretended to be caught in the trap too. “Crap! That was her!” Valerie shouted at the Earth-Walkers. “That’s the mini-boss!”
“The timer on that spell is ridiculous. That boss must be over Level 50! You said your group got the main boss down real low? Are you sure we can finish him and the mini-boss off?” the Earth-Walker asked, looking genuinely concerned.
“I am pretty sure we can. Have you tried fighting him before?” Valerie asked, not knowing if they had any idea what the boss would look like. If they know what he looks like, we’ll have to change the dialogue up, but we can still pull the plan off.
“Yeah, we fought him earlier. He came out of nowhere, flanked us from behind and ate our back line up.” The Earth-Walker stopped his struggle against the ice chains to grimace for a minute.
Valerie, seeing how effective the ice chains were at holding the group in place, had to give it to Kass and the spell. It seems that your level really does make a difference in how effective snares are. It’s not like the chains would hold them in place this long if these guys were taking damage, but no-one’s attacking them, and the group isn’t smart or brave enough to attack themselves to help break the snares. Everything is going just as planned. She felt a maniacal laughter well up in her but did her best to stifle it since letting it out wouldn’t be good for the character she was playing.
“Literally? He ate your herd like it was cows, like, literally? That doesn’t sound pleasant. Luckily, he hasn’t eaten any of us yet.” She didn’t lie. Given that they weren’t even fighting Darwin, she could claim he wasn’t using any number of attacks and still be within the boundaries of truth--not that she planned on letting truth limit her freedoms anyway.
“It wasn’t,” he said and shuddered, again making Valerie think he had been one of the victims.
The group broke free after a little over five minutes, but Valerie stopped them again. “Hold on!” Valerie threw her hand up to stall the group, which was about to charge right towards the base. “Maybe we should take a detour? I mean, if we head straight towards that base, there is a good chance the little ice missy is going to be waiting for us with another trap. She just wants to stall us until the devilish King of Demons heals up. If we zigzag around her, she won’t be able to predict our path since she isn’t chasing me anymore. We might make it there without having to fight her at all.”
“That’s . . . That’s not a bad idea,” the leader said again.
Only one of them talks, and the rest follow. They must be experienced raiders from another game. That’s the only time I see this much organization and adherence to silence in video games--when people are raiding in good groups. “Great, let’s go!” Valerie made sure to be the one leading the band, hoping to time it just right so that the group would show up exactly when she wanted it to. Right when-- Valerie paused. She saw the Fire-Walker boss that she, Daniel and Mclean had once fought slamming into the ground and pushing up a ring of fire. She remembered its speed and the heat that had consumed her and burned her alive. It was the first time she had died in-game.
That fire toasted all three of us like s’mores at a camp fire . . . As she looked around, she remembered the agony of the flames dancing up her body and the smell of her own burnt flesh still clinging to her nostrils. He had been so angered by me that he didn’t even bother fighting the other two until I was dead . . . An idea popped into her head as she watched the Fire-Walker vanish before her eyes.
“I have to be honest with you people since you’ve been helpful so far.” She lifted up further in the air. They’re so organized. They’re so obedient to the leader. Such a perfect raid group . . . I wonder how mad they’ll be now. She didn’t bother containing her laughter as she picked up higher and higher into the sky. “This time, victory will come!”
“That’s the spirit! Let’s get this King of Demons while he’s still low!” the Earth-Walker shouted his approval, not understanding what she was talking about.
Without giving him a moment to react, she halted in the air and dove as fast as she could with all her might. The Earth-Walker, his Jotunns, Grendel-Kin and the entire army watched in silence as her attack rocketed into the middle of the leader’s chest and pushed him into the ground like he was a seed being planted hastily by a rushed farmer.
“What the heck!” one of the others shouted. Their unified silence and careful attention was shattered in an uproar as they broke into chaos and rushed towards her.
Valerie pushed off the freshly-buried corpse and started heading towards the base as fast as she could, utilizing every skill she had to make the escape faster.
That dive was harder to do than it should have been, she noted. She was still satisfied with the result but slightly troubled by how she had been forced to think about every step of a skill that should have been intuitive. It didn’t even do as much damage as it should have, she grumbled to herself as she flew, now aware that even her flight speed had slowed down a bit compared to what it had been before. Flying towards the rampart with the enemies hot on her trail, she also couldn’t help but notice the occasional feathers that flew off of her wings as she pressed onwards. Nevertheless, she still couldn’t help but laugh at the look of shock the poor guild leader had worn just moments before his demise.
“Come on! Keep up, lover boys!” she taunted, laughing at them the whole time. “You’ll never catch a girlfriend if you move that slow.” She mocked them as she performed a barrel roll.
It was as exhilarating as it had been the first time she flew through the sky unhindered. This time, however, she felt even more free than she had then. After all, back then, she had a different kind of shackle chaining her to the ground. They hate me. They hate me so much, she cackled to herself. They hate me so much that they won’t even see it coming.
“Kass! Fight them, but don’t snare them!” she shouted as she flew to where Kass, Minx and Daniel were waiting for her.
“Fight them? There’s too many!” Kass complained,
“Just do it! We only need to hold them off a minute! Minx, make sure Alex pulls the Blue-Drakes back and has them circle around and attack on my mark. We’re going to win this!” Valerie giggled. This is fun. The fight was about to start. She had perfectly organized the deaths of over a hundred people, and she just couldn’t stop herself from feeling excited. This is a lot of fun.
Darwin:
“Have you picked your Level 60 skills yet?” Kitchens asked as the two made their way through the forest.
“No, not yet. I usually do it when I level up, but I’ve put it off until I have time to think about it without making an entire group wait on me,” Darwin shrugged.
“How about now then? You might end up needing the skill if the encounter proves to be violent.” Kitchens stopped running and waited for Darwin to do likewise. As Darwin also broke pace and came to a halt, Kitchens walked over to him.
“Alright, are you going to do the same?”
“Maybe, I am still not sure what I want to do with my class system. On one hand, I am compelled to maintain the most challenging gameplay possible and see how far my blade alone can carry me. On the other hand, I’m also hungry to be the most powerful player in existence. Currently, when you’re in your transformative stage, I can’t match you. I did everything I could just to stay even with you on the battlefield last time. But if I were to pick a focus and some skills, perhaps I could give you a run for your money.” Kitchens looked at his blade. “It just still feels like it would be admitting defeat. Perhaps I’ll get one later.”
“Fair enough, but since I’ve already picked up a few, there doesn’t seem to be an issue with grabbing one more, right?” Darwin said, opening up his skill menu to see what the Level 60 options would be.
Please choose between one of these abilities:
Cheap Dining and Quick Eats (Passive) – Consuming the flesh or blood of players during combat will restore 25% of missing health and boost damage by 5% (fades after 300 seconds out of combat, damage bonus does not stack).
For some people, it’s hard to tell the difference between when they’re having a meal on the run and when they’re running down a meal.
The Five Second Rule! (Passive) – After killing an enemy, restore 50% of all damage the enemy inflicted in the five seconds prior to his death.
People always say that if you drop the ball, just pick it up and try again. Why do they insist on the same not being true for food? If you pick the food up within five seconds, it’s still good, right?
“Something wrong?” Kitchens asked, probably noticing the grimace Darwin made as he read the first option.
Consuming flesh or blood from a player? Darwin wanted to feel sick. He didn’t, but he knew it was the right reaction. Who eats their enemies during combat? he started to ask himself until he remembered the last fight. He suddenly remembered the feeling of his teeth sinking into his prey, ripping the flesh free. So maybe it wouldn’t be a useless skill after all . . . He sighed.
“I have to choose between one skill that seems overpowered and one skill that doesn’t,” Darwin said to Kitchens with a frown.
“And you don’t want to pick the overpowered one because . . .” Kitchens looked somewhat confused.
“Well, it requires me to eat my enemies during combat.” Darwin laughed at his own situation.
“Ah, and you’re worried you’ll get indigestion?”
“It could also taste bad?”