by Charles Dean
“Let me send them straight to Augustus,” Miller said, once more slamming his spear to the ground activating his Drunken Shout. It was obvious from their sudden wobbliness when the effects hit them, but all except a lone Firbolg among them weren’t nearly as affected as the Cragaboom had been. Like most bar-traveling adventurers in this world, they had probably drunk more than their fair share of alcohol, and they had probably spent far more than their fair share of time in bar fights while drunk; so, unlike the monster, which had trouble recovering from the effects of the shout, most of this group was only stunned for a split second. Their eyes glazed over a bit as the sensation of being inebriated hit them in a wave, and they braced themselves for the inevitable conflict.
No one from Lee’s group so much as hesitated. They were all used to taking advantage of the Drunken Shout, and they had long since grown inured to its effects. Lee slammed straight into the Firbolg Leader, throwing his tower shield up in front of him and ramming it into the Firbolg’s body as hard as he could. The giant man was thrown back and sent tumbling to the ground, unable to recover his balance in time. Lee wanted to move in for a quick follow-up attack, but before he could get close enough to swing at the downed man, the purple-haired one came in and stabbed at Lee.
Crap! Lee grimaced, involuntary flinching as the 32-damage attack sank into his arm and then panicking when he saw the weapon flash in front of him followed by the number. It wasn’t a particularly high amount of damage--in fact, it didn’t even make up more than twelve percent of his total hit points--but the combination gave away his opponent’s level. He had seen that exact weapon being sold to a traveling merchant not too long ago, and he remembered it as being nothing more than a simple, steel dagger that did four damage. So, while the roguish-looking, purple-haired bastard wasn’t tricked out in anything fancy--his gear might even be mistaken for a starter’s--he was actually level 26.
The leather armor Lee was wearing blocked 8 damage, so such a weak weapon wouldn’t normally do any damage at all. Simple math said that 8 damage canceled out 4 damage dealt. For him to take 32 damage, the purple-haired Firbolg had to have 36 points in Power. Assuming that he started with close to the same ten base Power that normal Humans did, and assuming he gained one additional point per level, it meant that his opponent had to be around level 26, a full nine levels over Lee.
That realization raced through Lee’s head as he shifted his shield, blocking the second attack and turning it away. He took advantage of the poor follow-up and thrust forward with his sword, stabbing directly into the dagger-wielder’s stomach. A brief look of confusion flashed across the man’s face as Lee’s blade found its target, but it wasn’t enough to deter him from attacking once again. His daggers flashed out in rapid succession a second time, and Lee barely had time to throw his shield back in front of him to stop both attacks. The flurry of attacks continued unabated, and Lee struggled to quickly come up with a plan while he was hidden behind the inch-thick barrier of wood and steel. The speed with which the man attacked was terrifying, and he knew that he couldn’t take him head-on, so he had to come up with something else.
Trying to assess the situation without having to pop out from behind the tower shield, he swapped to using Little Ethan’s two pairs of eyes to get a better grasp of what was going on in front of him. The two flying mice had the perfect vantage point from which to observe the fight. The purple-headed goon was ducking up and down and weaving from side to side, constantly trying to maneuver past Lee’s shield, and the Firbolg that Lee had knocked over was still trying to get back onto his feet behind him. Unlike with the lanky Human on the other side of the shield, Miller’s Drunken Shout seemed to have been much more effective on that lone Firbolg, who never made it more than halfway up before his wobbly legs sent him back to the ground again.
He saw Miller raging as he fought another one of the four Firbolgs, a big, fat man with a unibrow that put Miller’s nearly Neanderthal-level forehead hair to shame. The caterpillar-browed behemoth was doing his best to fight Miller off with a two-handed broadsword, and it wasn’t going well for him. Miller, in an uncharacteristically-calculated manner, countered each of his opponent’s blows without even bothering to go for a strike. Every time the giant blade came in for a horizontal slash, Miller promptly diverted it toward the ground. Each time the man came in for a vertical, downward attack, Miller dodged it. It was strange, but it was Miller’s version of playing with his food, so to speak, and the grin that was planted across his face belied some as-of-yet-unseen point to his defensive game.
Meanwhile, Ling was firing arrows at the pair of Firbolgs that Amber was fighting on Lee’s right. She wasn’t having a great deal of success since one of them had a large tower shield too, and the other had such high dexterity that he was always able to be where the arrows weren’t. Despite her lack of success, every arrow she fired pushed one back just a little more. Amber was quick--in fact, she was far faster than both Lee and Miller--but she lacked the strength necessary to properly parry and stop attacks. If it weren’t for Ling’s steady fire, Amber likely would have been in trouble, unable to defend herself from both opponents, and he could only imagine what that could mean.
Lee grimaced as the horrid thought ran through his head. No, focus on the fight in front of you. She’ll live longer if we get to her quicker . . . Lee steeled his nerves as he watched the crazy, purple-haired Human try and poke a dagger around his shield. You know what? If he wants to get past me so bad, and I need to end this fight sooner to help Amber, then maybe I should just let him. All I need to do is control how and when he gets past my guard. The goon circled around him once more, and Lee made his decision.
“Miller, I need you to kill that guy off quickly!” Lee shouted, simultaneously sharing his idea with the two rodents circling above. “Amber can’t hold those two off on her own.”
Lee waited a few seconds to make sure the timing was right and then pushed back on his feet as hard as he could, making a little space, and then pulled his shield open to expose his chest. Come on, you bastard. Lee grinned as he watched the fish dive toward the bait. Just as he expected, the man completely lost track of his surroundings as he rushed forward, ready to make quick work of what he thought to be foolish and easy prey. The two mice swooped down onto either side of the man’s head and chomped their teeth into his eyeballs.
Lee closed the gap for his enemy, quickly stabbing him right in the abdomen as he screamed and flung his daggers up to stop the mice. Even with Lee’s sword in his stomach and both of his eyes being chewed at, he still managed to cut one of the mice in half. His dagger jammed into the mouse on his right eye before piercing through its body, killing it nearly instantly and sending a wave of pain through Lee.
You have taken 54 feedback damage through your psychic connection to your Golem.
You have learned the proficiency skill Mental Fortitude. This skill is currently at Initiate Level 1. This skill improves one’s resistance to psychic-based magic attacks.
You have been awarded 2 Intelligence for discovering a new skill without the assistance of class trainers or a manual. Current Intelligence: 123.
“Ahh!” Lee couldn’t help but scream himself as the dagger dug in and his clay creation’s consciousness was forcibly expelled from one of his vessels. The feedback damage was less than twenty percent of his remaining hit points, but the pain that accompanied it made it feel like much more. It felt like someone had taken a dull icepick to his head with enough force to split his brain into two pieces. Nevertheless, the pain didn’t stop him from digging his sword deeper into the man’s stomach, angling it up underneath the man’s rib cage and into his lungs.
The game had a way of rewarding you for striking vital points. If you could stab someone’s heart, slit a throat or stab an eye, the system that determined damage would give you the kill much quicker. So, in this case, a punctured lung would be just as effective as striking someone numerous times. It wouldn’t normally be an instant kill, but with t
he amount of damage the two rodents had done before one died, it would be enough to guarantee the man a quick death. Lee felt his blade cut through the last remaining layers of flesh as it popped into his intended target, and he quickly withdrew his weapon and backed up a step.
He had never lost a creation before. They had gone through most of his adventures and quests unharmed and unhindered, often striking only at the most opportune moment, and Lee had no idea what to expect now that one of them had been killed. The pain was pulsing through his head like a raging river, and he could feel rage and hatred flowing through the remaining golem with such great intensity that it was hard to put even one or two of his own thoughts together over the emotional noise.
You have killed Slarzar the Spiney. Your party has been awarded 540 Experience. Your share of this 135 Experience.
Ethan, go channel that hatred on Amber’s behalf. Try to kill one of those good-for-nothing scumbags so that she doesn’t have her hands as full . . . Lee closed his eyes and focused, driving out the pain for just a second so that he could send the order. He could see the fight more clearly from the golem’s perspective as the flying clay rodent whipped its head around to take an assessment of the potential targets.
Thankfully, in the dozen or so seconds that he had spent finishing off his own target, Miller had listened to his cry for haste and efficiently disposed of his own. He had cut up the man’s thighs and shins so badly that the corpulent oaf couldn’t even stand up. As if he knew that he was being watched, Miller smiled toward the rodent before executing the now-crawling man by stabbing his spear through the Firbolg’s back.
“Ha!!!” Miller let out a single note of laughter as he pushed the shaft deeper, stilling the bloated Firbolg’s final twitches.
Your party has killed Rotunus. Your party has been awarded 11 silver, 80 copper, a superior-quality steel sword and 585 Experience. Your share of this is 2 silver, 20 copper, and 146 Experience.
“Good,” Lee said to Miller. “Now, come over here and help me hold this guy off so I can--”
“Save your woman? Be the hero? Fine. Deny your paladin the glory that is his! I’ll just have to take solace in knowing that justice has given me the leader of this evil cohort while you double down on heroics!” Miller ripped his spear from his victim’s back and rushed toward the enemy leader at full speed.
The poor guy was clearly the only one in his group who couldn’t handle his alcohol. He had finally stabilized himself and pulled out a spear that was, at a glance, both fancier and larger than Miller’s and had begun to use it as a means to stand up. Lee wanted to dash over and help ensure that the man died before he could enter the fight, but his nervousness about Amber’s situation only grew as he watched her take a slice from one of the Firbolg’s daggers in her lower back.
Crap! He sprinted toward her despite knowing that he wouldn't make it in time to save her from being diced up as the aggressive, dual-wielding Firbolg pressed his advantage.
Lee’s surprisingly-emotional golem summoned up a wellspring of courage and dived headlong toward the man. Ducking and dodging past the shield-carrying Firbolg, the flying mouse swooshed through the battle and slammed headfirst into the dagger-wielding Firbolg’s bright-orange, hair-covered, elephantine right ear. The blow wasn’t really much to write home about. In fact, it was clear that, even with all of his efforts to build up speed and power, the impact still amounted to as much deadly force as a softly-tossed kitten landing gently in a gamer’s lap, but it was more than enough to create a distraction.
The small ball of clay bounced off the right side of the man’s head, causing it to jolt to the left momentarily as the man turned to see what hit him. Since the sword-and-board user was occupied with Ling’s arrows, it offered Amber a small moment’s reprieve. She lunged forward with a hard right punch, blade still in hand, and her clenched fist seemed to glide across the man’s outstretched arms and reached the man’s neck. The weapon she was holding dug into the Firbolg’s jugular, and a stream of blood came pouring out. The sanguine river only doubled in volume as she retracted the blade with a rough slash.
Unwilling to even give the sorry sucker a moment to realize he was wounded, she stabbed forward again. This time, she slammed her left-hand weapon into his chest, creating a sort of handle, and then snaked the dagger in her right hand through the gap in the man’s leather armor around and into his armpit. Rather than pulling out her blade quickly like she had with his throat, she twisted the blade as if she was trying to clean out a glass, but her hands were too big to get the sponge to reach the bottom. It was gruesome, but not nearly as bloody as her first attack.
Your party has killed the Hammond. Your party has been awarded 19 silver, 76 copper, a 1.75 carat emerald of above average quality and 583 Experience. Your share of this is 4 silver, 19 copper, a 1.75 carat emerald of above average quality and 145 Experience.
Lee kept running even though he knew that he was going to arrive too late. As much a relief as the man’s gory demise was, Amber still wasn’t out of the fire just yet. There was still one Firbolg left standing. He was massive in stature and size and yet nimble enough to continuously shift his shield such that the now-porcupine-looking front caught each of Ling’s well-aimed arrows. He even grinned as he blocked one arrow after another as if he was enjoying himself. Lee knew that this type of quick movement probably wouldn't be possible in real life and was likely the product of the system enhancing his speed and coordination, but it was still impressive and mystifying to watch.
“Chase the dog’s tail!” Lee called to Ling as he closed in on him. While Ling hadn’t been particularly social lately, constantly returning to her room or home to take care of things whenever Lee was caught up doing something that involved talking, the two had still been training together a lot. They had even developed a series of codes that were to be used when fighting larger bounty monsters in case something unexpected happened or their plans went awry. ‘Chase the dog’s tail’ was one of those codes.
When Lee slammed his shield into the Firbolg’s, breaking off most of the embedded arrows before he was repelled and sent harmlessly back five feet, Ling strafed around so that she was lined up with the man’s back. While she moved, she kept firing one arrow after another at the man’s left ankle and foot. None of the arrows landed, and the man shifted around in order to dodge the incoming fire, but that was exactly the desired effect: to slow him down. Once Ling was in a position good enough for Lee’s liking, Lee rotated in the opposite direction to the man’s right side. This forced the already-frustrated Firbolg to make a decision: he could face Ling and block the barrage of arrows and take a sword in the back, face Lee and take an arrow in the back or try to escape both of them and somehow maneuver around so that the two returned to his front by backing up. Ling would actually have to move much farther than the Firbolg in order to stay at his backside, so backing was a logical choice given the alternatives, and it wasn’t actually an impossible task if he was quick enough.
Unfortunately for him, he found out that his foot had been blocked by the shaft from one of Ling’s arrows as soon as he took a step, and the Firbolg nearly ended up falling backward. Lee struck during that moment of confusion. The man’s shield reflexively moved to intercept the short sword, but as he turned to block, a series of arrows sank into his back one after the other. Ling’s arrows flew quickly and assuredly that she was able to land three hits in the brief moment he had turned to block Lee, and once his guard was disrupted, the impact was enough to prevent him from turning toward her. A chain of pointy, wooden, doom-sticks struck home until his eyes rolled up, and his knees gave way.
Your party has killed Segorn. Your party has been awarded 23 silver, 20 copper, one reinforced tower shield and 512 Experience. Your share of this is 5 silver, 5 copper, one reinforced tower shield and 128 Experience.
Your party has killed Muschap. Your party has been awarded 4 gold, 1 silver, 58 copper and 544 Experience. Your share of this 1 gold, 27 copper and 136 Experience.
Lee was able to finally relax when he saw the system simultaneously announce the last two deaths. He looked over at Miller and then winced when he saw the enemy leader’s mutilated body being tossed to the ground. His eyes darted over to Amber, wanting to see how she was holding up, only to see her squatted down over the body of her enemy, stabbing away at his chest with her knife. Her face was beaded with sweat, the man’s organs were exposed, and blood was flying everywhere, but the only thing he felt was a deep sadness--a sentiment shared by Ethan as he landed on Lee’s shoulder.
Lee glanced over at his remaining companion. Still worried about her, even after losing your other half? The tiny golem’s reactions were sometimes so perfect that Lee believed it could understand and speak his language perfectly, but at other times, it just stared at him blankly as if it never processed anything he said or did. Essentially, his mouse golem’s personality had turned out to be a weird hybrid between those of a cat and dog. Fine, I’ll help you out even if you don’t thank me. Lee leaned down and picked up some clay. It took him a few moments, but he activated his skill and gave his new creation life.
Your mastery of Golem Sculpting has progressed from the rank of Novice Level 9 to the rank of Novice Level 10. Golem Sculpting now allows for the sculpting of two golems. Current Combat Bonus: 165.32%. Golems created by Golem Sculpting may now take up an additional 5% more space. Current Max Space: 5.56 fluid ounces.
There we go. Good as new, Lee thought to his mouse. He knew that Ethan wasn’t the same though. Despite its rage at the people attacking Amber, the mouse now had an ingrained fear of danger after its duplicate’s demise that was even stronger than before. Lee had felt his golem’s death as vividly as if it were his own, and that sudden amputation of an extension of his own consciousness was a wound he would remember as well.