by Aleron Kong
“My lord,” Caulder said, also keeping his eye on the giant killer tree, “Maybe we could discuss this later? Perhaps after we deal with this monster?”
“Fine,” Richter muttered, still irritated with Sion even if the sprite might be right. He brought up his War Leader screen. Any badges bought would only affect the next war party he formed. That was why Richter hadn’t actually chosen the eleven members he would fight with yet. He had also been saving his War Points so that he could buy something really good. That has always been his tactic while gaming. Not nickeling and diming his resources for short-term gains. Richter had always like getting some rare and awesome high-level skill and then using it to crush his enemies in unexpected ways.
Total War Points Remaining: 651.
Badge
Cost
Description (applies to entire party)
Melee Attack I
(Closed)
25
+5% to melee attacks
Melee Defense I (Closed)
25
+5% to melee defense
Ranged Attack I (Closed)
25
+5% to ranged attacks
Ranged Defense I (Closed)
25
+5% to ranged defense
Magical Strength I (Closed)
25
+3% to magical strength
*Must specify spell school upon acquisition. May only choose spell school used during battle leading a War Party.
Magical Strength III (Life)
(Closed)
100
+9% to Life magical strength
*Must specify spell school upon acquisition. May only choose spell school used during battle leading a War Party.
Magical Defense I (Closed)
25
+2% to magical defense
*Must specify spell school upon acquisition. May only choose spell school used during battle leading a War Party.
Skilled Positions (Independent)
400 to unlock each
Available Positions:
Tank III: LOCKED
Scout III: LOCKED
Healer III: LOCKED
Lead by Example II (Personal)
300
LOCKED
Movement Speed I (Open)
100
+10% Movement Speed
*Must specify terrain type upon acquisition. May only choose terrain type that the War party has traveled on.
Movement Speed IV (Forest)
(Open)
700
+40% Movement Speed in Forests
Favored Enemy I (Open)
250
When fighting a favored enemy:
+10% Melee and Ranged Attack and Defense
+6% Magical Strength (all Basic Elements)
+4% Magical Defense (all Basic Elements)
*Must specify enemy upon badge acquisition. May only choose enemies which have been fought while leading a War Party. Only one favored enemy per War Party formation.
Favored Enemy II (Goblin)
(Open)
500
When fighting goblins:
+20% Melee and Ranged Attack and Defense
+12% Magical Strength (all Basic Elements)
+8% Magical Defense (all Basic Elements)
*Only one favored enemy per War Party formation.
Trainer I
(Closed)
250
+5% experience earned for War Party members
Power Level II
(Closed)
250
20% of the experience earned by the entire war party can be channeled to a specific member. The third rank of this badge allows the recipient to be three times beyond the Sphere of Influence and still receive the experience.
*Experience recipient must be within Sphere of Influence
Sphere of Influence II
(Personal)
500
Increase range of Sphere of Influence by 200%
There were many options available, but what he needed right at that moment was something that would keep his people alive. That meant staying out of the tree’s attack radius. Richter poured all of his points into Ranged Attack. Prompts flooded his vision.
Congratulations! You have purchased the War Badge: Ranged Attack I….
Congratulations! …
Congratulations! …
Congratulations! You have purchased the War Badge: Ranged Attack IV. Ranged Attacks by your war party now cause 20% more damage.
Total War Points Remaining: 301
The fifth rank would cost two hundred and seventy-five War Points. He could buy one of them, but it would wipe him out. That was fine with Richter though. He hoped they wouldn’t get within range of the tree, but battles rarely respected his wishes. He poured points into Melee Defense and another cascade of prompts filled his view.
Congratulations! You have purchased the War Badge: Melee Defense I…
Congratulations! …
Congratulations! You have purchased the War Badge: Melee Defense III. Your war party now has 15% greater defense against melee attacks
Total War Points Remaining: 126
Last, he invested in his party’s Ranged Defense.
Congratulations! You have purchased the War Badge: Ranged Defense I…
Congratulations! You have purchased the War Badge: Ranged Defense II. Your war party now has 10% greater defense against ranged attacks
Total War Points Remaining: 51
With the new badges bought, he chose his war party. Sion was assigned the Scout position, Caulder became the Tank and Richter assigned one of the Life magi named Heval as the party’s Healer. Richter added Kentyiro and the three other sprites, as well as Sedrin and three other guardsmen. As his Companion, Sion didn’t take up a slot in the war party which brought the “total” party members up to eleven. That was a full complement for his initiate War Leader skill. Richter handed out four more mana potions to each of the sprites, telling them to drink it just before starting to imbue their arrows.
“We’re going to test your control, boys. I want you pouring almost every ounce of magic that you can into this opening salvo. Don’t risk full mana depletion, I don’t want you to crash or risk a mana migraine, but give it everything you can. I think we should be safe at this distance, but we don’t know exactly how this will go. Also, I don’t like the sound of this thing’s Spawn attack. So stay frosty, everyone. Ready?”
They all nodded, so Richter simply said, “Let’s do this.”
Richter downed a mana potion to offset the drain he was about to experience, and quickly drew back his arrow and started imbuing. All five archers were using dual-enchanted moonstone arrows. They were enchanted with Multishot up to rank IV and Freeze to rank II. They were almost the most powerful enchantments he had ever made, and were probably worth nearly a hundred gold each. He had thought of them as his “showstoppers,” but now he hoped they just killed this thing before it could kill any of his people.
“Fire at one second intervals!” Sion commanded loudly. “Do not risk instability in your imbuements. If the mana you’re channeling begins to escape your control, then fire! If that happens, the man to your left will fire next one second later and so on. Let’s reclaim our pixie!” The meidon sprites had been practicing imbuing enchanted arrows over the last day, something that went against all their training. Sion had demonstrated that it was possible to meld the magic in an arrow with their newly enhanced racial skill though, and so they had gotten on board.
Only one of the Multishot arrows kept the initial level of imbuement, but the copies still maintained a weaker version of the imbued magic, doing serious damage. As far as Richter knew though, this was the first time they had imbued a dual enchanted arrow, so Sion’s warning was well said. The sprite looked at Richter, “We fire together.” The chaos seed nodded back.
Five lights sprung into being. Four were a rich blue and the fifth was pure gold. The glows deepened in intensity as more mana wa
s poured in. Fine streaks of lightning appeared as each sprite drew on their connection to their meitu’pixie and Richter drew on his bond with Alma. The extra effects were gold, yellow, blue and black, reflecting the magic inherent to their pixies. The lightning surrounding Richter’s own arrow was the blue-white of psychic energy.
Two hundred, four hundred, then six hundred points of mana went into Richter’s shot. The powerful mana potion he’d drunk was restoring his magic, but not nearly as fast as he was draining it. His imbuement began to look like battling shells of gold and black. Richter pulled on his Psi Channeling ability and siphoned off Alma’s mana. The dragonling willingly gave everything she could to her master.
The first sprite released.
A blue streak shot toward the abyssal tree. It had shown no signs of life up to this point, but it immediately reacted to the threat. A screech split the peace of the forest and its tentacles began writhing like a den of disturbed snakes. Several dozen ropy vines extended towards the arrow with the intent of intercepting it before the projectile could damage the tree itself. That would have been a good idea, but after the arrow crossed half the distance, it blurred and five arrows took its place. All of them veered at a slightly different angle, barreling toward the monster. Four more shots followed right behind it.
The tentacles intercepted three of the first multi-arrows. The tentacles struck were blown apart and the other two gouged large holes in the wooden base. The screaming of the tree increased in volume and fury. Hundreds more tentacles shot towards the arrows. Only two of the next ten multi-arrows struck the trunk, but the others all exploded and devastated many of the tentacles. Large swaths of the thick green vines were obliterated. Still others were frozen solid by the Freeze enchantment on the arrows. These shattered a moment later in the concussive blasts of the exploding imbued arrows.
Sion and Richter had waited longer to shoot. Both of their mana pools were much deeper than the other three sprites and so they were able to invest much more into their shots. Richter had been holding on to maximize the effect of their joint attack, but the magic of the imbuement was starting to feel like a lubed eel in his mind. Just when he was about to release, Sion shouted “Now!” and fired his own arrow. Richter did the same.
Twin bolts of blue and golden-black magic shot towards the tree. Though many of the other three sprite’s arrows had been intercepted, the shots hadn’t been wasted. They had destroyed a great deal of the tentacles on the side of the tree the archers were facing. That had been Sion’s plan all along and was the reason he had ordered the other sprites to stagger their shots. The two Companions had both aimed for the hole in the abyssal tree’s defense without needing to verbalize it. Their arrows split and the copies interwove, now ten promises of magic and death. The tree managed to block one of them, but the other nine all impacted against the trunk with devastating results. Richter’s combat log came alive.
BEGIN COMBAT LOG
Abyssal Gobrit Tree is immune to Mind Fog.
Abyssal Gobrit Tree is immune to Stun.
Abyssal Gobrit Tree suffers from Psi Crystallization.
Richter strikes Abyssal Gobrit Tree with Enhanced Imbue Arrow for 1,053 points of varied damage with primary arrow (base Piercing=65, base Magical Force=364): [(+17 Recurve Bow of the Wood Sprite + 8 Moonstone Arrow +3 Water Damage) x (20% War Badges + 34% for level 17 Archery + 76% for 38 points of Dexterity)] + [(817 Mana/5) x (85% for level 17 Imbue Arrow + 38% familiar level)] – 9 Armor.
6-foot radius AoE Damage (not including modifiers): 364
Richter strikes Abyssal Gobrit Tree with Enhanced Imbue Arrow for 156 points of varied damage with copied arrows (base Piercing=65, base Magical Force=364/4): … x 4 arrows
Total Damage: 938
END COMBAT LOG
That one attack had drained his entire mana pool and most of Alma’s besides. That single enchanted moonstone arrow was also probably worth the equivalent of one thousand bucks when The Land had just been a game, maybe much more seeing as how it had been dual enchanted. He had literally just hit the tree with everything he had, an attack that left his head spinning from mana depletion and that he could not have repeated for long minutes until his MPs regenerated. Like his uncle used to say though, it’s okay if you blew your load, as long as you got the money shot!
Many of the abyssal trees tentacles went limp, and its roar had turned into a strained mewling. Richter could also see its trunk now. The wood was black and gnarled. Broken branches stuck out from its center like spines on a cactus. Most of the gobrit’s low hanging limbs had been snapped off completely after the powerful attack. A large maw yawned open and a number of bones littered the ground beneath it. Another quick check with Analyze showed that it had barely over two hundred health left.
“What the fuck?” Caulder blurted out, having witnessed the full power of Richter’s Profession for the first time. Even fifty yards away, the party was being pelted with pieces of obliterated vines and all of their ears were ringing from the concussive booms!
“Yeah,” Richter replied with a cocky smile. “I’m nice like that.”
“Shut it!” Sion snapped, shutting down his friend’s preemptive victory lap. “The battle isn’t done. Nock another volley!”
“No,” Richter countermanded, holding up a hand. He drained a mana potion and fed another to Alma while the sprite looked at him in surprise, “It’s almost dead. I don’t know if the pixie was killed by our attack, but it deserves a shot at being saved. All of you stay here. I’ll finish this.”
Not waiting for the inevitable protests, Richter started sprinting forward. He downed a mana potion and sent a message to his familiar, *Are you with me, love?*
*Through death,* the dragonling replied, flying above him.
*Psi Blast, Soul Trap, Lightning, Drain.*
Alma sent back her assent.
Richter had crossed the distance in seconds, using his Cloud Running skill to pick up even more speed. The demon tree had been reeling from the devastating imbued attack, but it rallied in response to his presence. With an almost human scream, it sent all of its remaining tentacles towards him. A small wooden creature detached itself from the trunk and sprang towards Richter with two taloned arms outstretched. Richter changed his trajectory, pushing off the air. His stamina plummeted but he was able to dodge both the creature and the tentacles.
It tried to reorient on him, but Alma triggered her narrowest and most powerful Psi Blast. The psychic attack was greatly magnified by the Psi Crystallized debuff that was afflicting the gobrit tree. The blue-white psi crystal hovering near the trunk channeled and amplified her Thought attack. All the tentacles fell limp and the spawned wooden demon collapsed to the ground. A brief golden glow surrounded the tree as Alma cast Soul Trap; her body began to glow yellow as she prepared to release lightning.
Richter kicked off the air one more time and landed next to the trunk. He quickly scanned the wood and saw a knob on the trunk that looked like crystallized sap. The chaos seed used Analyze and his heart soared. It was the pixie! Flexing his knees, he jumped as high as he could. One more push took him up to the level of the cloudy crystal. His vision blurred a bit as that final jump used almost all of his remaining stamina, but he shook the feeling aside and focused on the task at hand. At the apex of his jump, Richter drew his moonstone short sword and plunged it into the wood of the tree. The abyssal creature made no response, still overcome by Alma’s psychic attack.
Using the white blade as a handhold, he drew his elementum blade with his free hand. The wood of the abyssal tree was tough, but it still gave way to the fey metal of Richter’s green blade. Feet planted against the trunk, he swung his elementum blade four times. On the fourth swing the tree shivered and its tentacles began to twitch. Not having time to sheath it, Richter dropped his green elementum short sword.
The enchanted weapon tumbled through the air, falling flat on the ground. As the tree began to howl, Richter reached his strong fingers into the wedge he had hack
ed into the trunk. Sap, thick and dark as blood in the moonlight, ran over his fingers as he pulled the chunk free. In the center of the freed piece of wood was the pixie chrysalis. With a tearing that felt like meat separating, the wood finally came free. Holding the slumbering pixie in the crook of one arm like a running back, he pushed against the trunk with both feet, freeing his moonstone blade in the process. Richter flew backward as the tree fully shook off the effects of Alma’s Psi Blast.
The loss of the pixie shook the gobrit tree from its stupor, and it roared as loudly as it had at the beginning of the battle. Its vines began to surge toward Richter’s falling body, but Alma latched onto the trunk and siphoned its last health away. Even as the chaos seed turned in midair, activating Cloud Running again, the tree was paralyzed by the dragonling’s Brain Drain attack. Richter glided safely to the ground and the abyssal creature died, leaving The Land a safer place, if only for the day.
Richter stood in front of the slain monster that towered above him. Alma finished her meal and flew into the air, trumpeting her victory. A small sleeping life lay cradled in the chaos seed’s arms. After Alma’s call faded away, everything was quiet; even the small animals of the forest remained still until Shinecatcher spoke up...
“Well, that was exciting!”
CHAPTER 60 – Day 144 – Kuborn 34, 0 AoC
Prompts flooded Richter’s vision.
For slaying one Abyssal Gobrit Tree, you have been awarded 70 War Points! (War Points multiplied by 10 for slaying an Abyssal Creature)
Total War Points Remaining: 121
You have captured:
Soul of an Abyssal Gobrit Tree
Durability: 35/35
Item Class: Unusual
Stone Level: Special
Soul Level: Special
Status: Filled