The Phantom Castle (The Way of the Shaman: Book #4) LitRPG series

by Vasily Mahanenko

  “How will they receive the quest?”

  “Killer will jump here in a couple minutes with several bodyguards. All we have to do is hold the Residence.”

  “Got it…Good luck everyone,” I typed into the chat. “At least we won’t leave without a fight!”

  “What’s up! Looks like we’ve made it in time!” Literally several seconds later, Magdey greeted me, stepping out of the portal. Taking stock of the surroundings he began to issue orders: “Nayel, Litan and Ualeb: Grab your shields and block the doors. Healers: maximum concentration. Anastaria: We could use your help too. Ranged fighters: Fire at will!”

  No sooner had our three Level 190 tanks taken their positions, than the door vanished with a loud bang and the Kartossian players poured into the opening. They managed three steps, however, before encountering a new wall formed by my tanks’ shields—and were immediately sent to respawn. Magdey and his fighters gave no quarter.

  “Plinto—it’s your turn!” I commanded my Rogue a minute later. Through the small windows of the Residence, I could see the Krispa town square roiling with enemies. Realizing that it was much easier to defeat three tanks than to break down the building’s wall, the Kartossians began to attack us in a coordinated manner. I was forced to admit that we weren’t facing a group of children here.

  “Nayel’s down! Eric, take his place! Priests, heal the tank!” Unable to break through the three tanks in one go, the wave of Kartossians abated, thereby allowing their ranged fighters to shoot at my shieldsmen from a distance. “Anastaria, we might as well be in a trap here. They’ll make mincemeat out of us from afar. I suggest we sally forth and respawn with a song!”

  “Hold on!” the girl instantly countered. “Tanks—take four steps back into the corridor. Get ready, Magdey: The bastards will have no option but to approach! Focus them one at a time. Ignore the tanks. Make the healers and warriors your priority.”

  “I’m in position. I can see you! Commencing operation ‘Train to Nowhere!’” came the message from Plinto. It was immediately followed by an explosion on the other side of the square from the Residence. The entire town fell silent. The players turned to look at the white smoke where the explosion took place, when, suddenly—flashing one of his bloodthirsty grins and twirling his Legendary daggers—the Rogue stepped proudly from the cloud. Looking over the crowd before him, Plinto graced them with a bitter smile.

  “Well, children,” he said in fluent Kartossian, “shall we play the killing game?” With these words, my Rogue turned engaged his Acceleration buff and the corner of the town square transformed into a maelstrom of death in which the Kartossians became no more than heads of cabbage consigned to the shredder. Even from a distance, I could see that Plinto only took one hit to kill a player and, due to the speed of his rotation, not a single melee fighter could approach him. What a curious windmill this was!

  “Get out Plinto!” I ordered once the Rogue’s Hit Points had decreased to half. Once again, I had to give the Kartossians their due: It took them only half a minute or so to regroup and begin pouring arrows and spells on the Rogue. “Lead them to the main gates! We have reinforcements headed there!”

  “Eric, switch!” I heard Nayel cry beside me and the revived tank literally threw my Officer aside to take his place.

  Another explosion shook the square, clouding my view and shrouding Plinto from the Kartossians. The chat exploded with panicked chatter:

  “Where’d he go?”

  “He took off for the gates! Everyone after him!”

  “Scialo’s group stay at the Mayor’s Residence! Everyone else, follow Plinto! There’ll be a hundred thousand to whomever lands the killing blow!” The last message came from Siegfried, the raid’s leader.

  The square filled with cries, whistles and yells as about half of the players wheeled around and made for the town gates.

  “Greetings!” A boom accompanied the opening of a portal as Ehkiller entered the Residence with a retinue of twenty players. “You must forgive us—our other high-level players are currently in a Dungeon and couldn’t come. Allow us to offer what assistance we can,” he said to the goblin Mayor, not wishing to waste a second. I glanced at the levels of the new warriors and was overcome with a devout shudder—of the twenty Phoenixes, two players were Level 277 and one was even Level 302. Now we’ll have a proper fight!

  “Walls are down to 10%” came Anastaria’s voice. “If we don’t sally now, we’ll lose. We’ll have to risk it! Anyone who can, work on removing debuffs and healing—the incoming damage will be infernal. Killer—you work on taking down their healers! Legends, sally forth!”

  “Guys! The Malabarians are at the gates! Let’s get them!”

  Excellent—the rest of Phoenix had appeared at the perfect moment. The main thing now was to make sure that this perfect moment wouldn’t be our last.

  I had never seen Anastaria actually fight before. In Beatwick Village and the Dark Forest she had always been the main healer, letting the other high-level players do the damage. Now, however, when her level alone was enough to terrify the enemy, Stacey turned into an irreplaceable warrior. Slamming into the row of Kartossians, she was no less effective than a trio of Phoenixes. Her blade flashing here and there around her heater shield. Steadily deflecting her foes’ spells, she dispatched them instantly and effortlessly. The deadly Valkyrie was quite the captivating sight amid the Krispa town square.

  But, yet again to give the Kartossians their due, they did not shrink from the challenge. Five hundred players—all that had remained in the square—formed a coordinated and almost impregnable defense, focusing our warriors one after another like we were doing to theirs. As I looked on, one of the Phoenix players tarried too long and instantly turned into an evaporating ghost, and there went another, attacked simultaneously by seven Warriors who bound his arms and legs, causing him to fall motionless to the ground where he remained. The Kartossians were suffering huge losses, but they were so numerous that it was steadily becoming clear that a hundred Level 190s was better than one or two Level 300s. Hmm…It was looking like our defense of the Mayor’s Residence was doomed to fail after all and it was time to admit that we would not be able to clear the town.

  “Everyone at the square, in exactly five seconds, I want you to dive facedown on the ground!” came a message from Stacey and was followed by a countown: “5, 4, 3...”

  I can’t say why but instead of diving with everyone else from our group, at the last moment, I transformed into a Dragon. The little girls I had given rides to that morning, had left me all of five minutes of Dragon Form, which I now decided to use to my utmost. Managing only a couple of steps in Stacey’s direction, arrows flying past me, I suddenly realized that a terrible silence reigned in the square. The Kartossians froze in place and the zombie standing beside me gaped as if he were seeing the Dark Lord himself, equipped with a Legendary Set and 300 Levels to boot, walking straight toward him. However, looking around, I understood what elicited this strange change in behavior. Her arms raised and singing a beautiful song, Anastaria stood in the center of the square in her Siren Form. I looked back at the zombie beside me and checking his properties, noticed his status read ‘Enamored,’ which blocked any movement for 120 seconds.

  “Mahan…” came Stacey’s hoarse and strained voice. “Take the…I’m done…Tell everyone…It’s possible…”

  There came a curt moan and Anastaria collapsed on the paving stones as though all her bones had been yanked from her body all at once.

  “Magdey! Killer! You have two minutes to cut them all to pieces!” I yelled wildly across the entire square. I flapped my wings and reached Stacey in a matter of seconds. Energy—0; Hit Points—20% and falling; debuffs—too many to count. “Healers! Over here, on the double!”

  “Mahan, she can’t be healed! The spells won’t affect her as long as she isn’t human!” Barsa wheezed, doing her best to heal Anastaria.

  “What’re we standing around for, people? Time’s ticking!”
I went on yelling, trying to impel everyone to turn on the love-struck Kartossians. Even Eric, who had already taken damage while helping the three tanks, was helping the warriors.

  I looked at Stacey again and cursed through my teeth: Energy—0; Hit Points—18%. Considering that Anastaria’s sensory filter was set to 30%, she would not be feeling well at all at the moment. Should I help her respawn? Like hell!

  “Mayor,” I screamed at the goblin head peeking out of the Residence, “I need a map of Krispa this instant!”

  “But how…” the goblin began to stutter. However, I no longer cared who was before me. It could have been the Emperor himself.

  “BRING ME THE MAP THIS INSTANT!” My roar could probably be heard across the entire town.

  You have used the ‘Thundering Shout’ ability. Energy of all the raid members has been increased by +20 and all the main stats by +20%. Duration: 5 minutes.

  The Mayor darted back into his Residence as if his life depended on it. In a mere ten seconds I was the owner of a detailed map not only of the town, but of the surrounding regions. At the moment, however, I couldn’t care less about the nearby mines, logging areas and plantations. I was only interested in one place—the temple of Eluna. If there was anyone who could help Anastaria, it would be the goddesses’ Priestess. Even my Thundering Shout had had no effect on Stacey’s Energy. The girl remained lying like a limp doll in my paws. I will have to make sure to find out what happens to the player herself in this condition—does she merely lose control or does she fully separate from her character? It would be good to know this for the future.

  As I flew up to the Temple, I realized that today simply wasn’t my day. According to the rules, when assaulting a city, the attackers can only destroy about a third of it. If the city is fully captured, Mayor’s Residence and all, then this portion can reach half, but no more. Now it turned out that ‘fortunately’ my quest led me to that very third of the town that had been razed. Immense flames flicked from the Temple’s windows; the roof had collapsed; the Priestesses lay strewn about and unable to do anything even if I helped them up. My hope that I could find some help for Stacey here, like the Lieutenant of Paladins, fled me with raucous laughter. It was looking like a respawn was inevitable.

  “This is a Malabar ambush! We’re surrounded!”

  “The hell is Phoenix doing here?”

  The chat flared up with cries of despair and confusion. It seemed that the Kartossians had forgotten why they were even there in Krispa, where all these new foes had come from, and cared only about when they could finally just head home.

  Placing Anastaria on the Temple stairs, I left my Dragon Form and, not quite trusting my healers, tried to summon the Spirit of Water Healing myself. Nothing. The Spirits appeared as ordered but had no effect whatsoever on the Siren who was now down to 5% Hit Points. I had only a minute left before I would have to wait six hours to see my girl again.

  My girl?

  Oh boy…

  “Come here, Draco! I need your help!”

  “Hey brother! What happened? Do you want to race again?” said my Totem, appearing beside me.

  “Do Dragons have any healing powers?” I asked, cutting him off.

  “I don’t even know,” Draco said pensively. He stopped wheeling about me and propped his head up with his tail. “I believe so, but…Who needs to be healed?”

  “Her,” I indicated the Siren.

  “The enemy? Well, it’s your business of course, but I would try the Priests first. Maybe they’ll pull it off?”

  “There’s no time to try anything. We need to act! I definitely have no healing powers—tell me, do you?”

  “I told you seriously—I don’t know! When I stub my paw, I simply breathe fire on it and it’s good again.”

  “So ordinary fire breath can heal you?” I echoed surprised.

  “Not quite ordinary. First I have to turn my throat a little and exhale from my diaphragm instead of my lungs.”

  “Do it!”

  “What, just like that, this instant? What if my breath affects Sirens in some other way?”

  “Then you’ll send her to the Gray Lands. And once she returns you can be sure she won’t be very happy with you.”

  “Ha, ha, ha,” said Draco. “Tell me, why…”

  “Draco, the Siren is down to 2% Hit Points. It’s now or never. Do it!”

  “As you like. But I warned you. If something happens, you’ll have to defend me.”

  “It hurts Mahan! Stop! I’m alive!”

  “Turn back into human form. You need to be healed,” I begged the girl, signaling to Draco to stop. Dragon-healing turned out to be a pretty interesting process. On the one hand, the Siren began to burn—literally burn. On the other hand, as she burned her Hit Points increased instead of decreasing. And on the, um, third hand, Stacey regained her sensation, so she could feel a portion of the pain. I just prayed she wouldn’t kill us.

  “Never do that again,” she said menacingly, getting to her feet. “I almost went into shock from the pain! It’s not very pleasant to feel yourself burning alive, you know.”

  “At least you’re alive, Stacey,” I said happily, dispelling Draco.

  “I reached Level 343 very recently. I still have very few XP. You were right beside me, so if I had dropped a Legendary Item, you could have held onto it for me. Now, tell me, you dummy, why would you make me suffer? For the sake of a third of the XP I barely even had?”

  “But Stacey, I thought…” I replied, shocked. I had not expected this kind of gratitude.

  “Damn it, Mahan! That was incredibly painful! Thank you for helping me survive, but please, do me an enormous favor and don’t do that again!”

  “Forgive me,” I mumbled, but then quickly regaining my composure suggested: “Do you feel up to continuing our banquet? We have Plinto and Phoenix back there turning up the fire. Half of the Kartossians have been taken care of. We’re chasing the other half around the town. Shall we go?”

  “I see.” Judging by Stacey’s darting eyes, she was reading the chat. “All right let’s go. The time has come to have some fun with these newbies.”

  The decimation of the babes occupied us for the next thirty minutes. In theory, you couldn’t call a battle between two sides of similar levels a beat-down, especially when there were twice as many of the lower-leveled side. However, it took a mere five minutes after our return for it to become clear that the Kartossian raid was not long for this world. The combined strengths of Plinto and Anastaria on the one side and the powerful group from Phoenix on the other, constant support from the healers, and our ranged fighters steadily picking off the enemy…Sure, we weren’t playing against children, but they truly had not chances against our team. Even with their advantage in numbers.

  “Healers, raise the NPCs!” Anastaria began issuing further orders almost as soon as the last of the Kartossians had been taken care of. “Barsa, take Killer’s healers and start working on the right side of the town. I’m going to take those of Magdey and start doing the left side. Killer, Magdey—you two protect us. Who knows how many of those bastards are hiding out in the buildings hoping to weather the storm? Let’s take the guards with us. They can start going through the houses. Let’s go!”

  “To all players! I am looking for a local guard named Frist. If you encounter him, please send him to me at the Mayor’s Residence. Magdey, tell a couple players to start gathering the loot the Kartossians dropped. Have them haul it to the Residence as well.”

  The government building was full of chaos. Through the broken door, a draft had scattered the Mayor’s papers from his desk. As soon as he spied Ehkiller and me, the goblin darted over to us and began to proclaim his eternal love and friendship. He also informed us that there were still 73 Free Citizens of Kartoss hiding out in the town. Assigning one of my players to send the guerrillas’ coordinates through the chat, I sat down in a chair that had miraculously survived and wearily shut my eyes. Something tells me that Anastaria won’t g
o on another date with me!

  Once the Kartossian guerillas had been taken care of, our clan’s Reputation with the Lestran Province shot up to maximum. Now I would have to send Leite here in order to start building economic bridges—no doubt Lestran offered many useful resources, which I would not say no to. It’s too bad that I will have to split them with Phoenix, but I didn’t have a choice in the matter. I can’t gather two hundred high-level players in five minutes. Ehkiller can, so he deserves the larger part of the reward. Assuring the Mayor of our future friendship and issuing the necessary orders to my financial guru, I continued my rest. I need to wrap things up here as quickly as possible and head for the Dungeon. I hope I won’t encounter any difficulties there.

  “Were you looking for me?” Literally five minutes later, I was approached by a handsome guard, evoking in me both envy and respect. Were Frist a real person, he would have been quite popular with members of the opposite sex. Standing before me was a powerful, handsome and self-assured man, behind whose back one could hide and feel completely safe no matter what was happening. Everyone loves people like him. I wonder which of his properties is strongest? Surely not Charisma—he does not create that kind of impression.

  “I was,” I replied, offering him the envelope. “I have a letter for you. It’s the reason we flew here to begin with actually. So when you reply to your beloved, make sure to thank her. By the way, the girl asked me to tell you that she misses you and awaits your prompt return.”

  Frist looked at me askance, opened the envelope, scanned the letter, frowned and said perplexedly:

  “Dominica? But…that’s impossible! She knows very well that I already have a woman whom I’ve proposed to. Dominica was like a sister to me, not my lover. I’m sorry that you had to travel all that distance only to have to return empty-handed, but I cannot reply to this letter in kind. You can tell her I said that.”