by Oliver Mayes
What should’ve taken less than an hour ended up taking two, with more time spent finding safe places to farm than actually farming. One of the side effects of the next zone becoming so PvP-oriented was that a lot of players were cramming into the back end of Brociliande to grind experience, often in groups for increased safety. With a lot of caution and perseverance, they netted a hard-earned 30 souls – averaging one every four minutes – before logging out to eat.
Despite Lillian assuring him everything would be fine over pizza, Damien wasn’t convinced. He’d almost rather have not taken any minions with him at all, for fear of losing them all when Rising Tide turned out to have different ideas from their leader. However, he couldn’t very well do that without offending Lillian, who’d helped him farm them for the better part of her afternoon.
Damien was pretty nervous when they reached the Frozen Forest and saw Rising Tide waiting for them. There were a lot of them. Once they’d stopped moving Damien was finally able to get an accurate count: thirty-six of them, all between level 38 and 44. Not as many as there had once been, but every last one of them high level.
They’d been told he was coming in advance, but that didn’t stop them from staring. Damien wasn’t sure where to look. He’d definitely killed at least half of these guys. He settled for staring at the back of Lillian’s head as she issued orders.
“Alright you lot, just like we planned. Team Clowns to the left of me, Team Jokers to the right, the rest of you with me and Daemien in the middle. Stick to your own team’s comms unless there’s an emergency. Focus! This is a player-killing zone. Let’s move out, it’ll take a while to get there.”
The walk through the forest was much less eventful with Rising Tide flushing it out in advance. The groups at their flanks, Clowns and Jokers, were especially vigilant. As he focused on each player in turn, Damien started remembering which of them he’d previously met in combat pretty quickly.
Lillian’s leadership of all these different characters was an incredible feat, even before factoring in her full-time job and Rising Tide’s lack of a guild headquarters. Especially since she’d personally contributed to Damien dethroning their leader. It said as much about them as it did about her.
It took the better part of an hour to traverse the whole zone, following a few altercations with players who’d drastically misread the situation. But the group eventually arrived at the far edge of the forest unscathed. Leaving his summons behind, Damien came to stand at Lillian’s side and set eyes on the obstacle he’d so blithely told Aetherius he’d circumvent without difficulty.
It was not like it was in the source material on the Saga media page. Not at all. The little border settlement of Carlisle was gone. It had been replaced with a huge wall that spanned the entire valley, completely blocking off the zone’s only exit. Yet while the mountains were made of stone, this thing was made of metal. That was weird, and foreboding. They had plenty of stone around they could’ve used instead, for much cheaper. It was almost as ridiculous, maybe even more so, than buying the settlement in the first place. Magnitude had to be rolling in gold.
It was hard to gauge the size of it, not least of all because there was nothing in front of it for comparison. The land around the base of the wall was a vast open semicircle, with no trees and no cover at all. An open field.
“Lillian, what the hell is that?”
“That’s Carlisle. I did say we might hit a tiny bit of resistance.”
“You call that a tiny bit of resistance? I was expecting us to go around a small settlement, not through a damn wall!”
“So was I. Over the last week, the Carlisle-Elite have been deconstructing Carlisle and turning it into this thing. I was hoping they wouldn’t have finished it before we were all geared from the dungeon, but no such luck. Looks like they had a busy day today. That’s not all. Look, up there.”
Damien followed her pointing finger and got his first anchor to perspective. A series of thin spikes were running all the way along the top of the wall, with torches spaced out between every three spikes. The slight wavering movement of each and every spike drew Damien’s attention to what they really were. Spears. Each held by a guard, their upper bodies showing through slats in the parapet. There were a lot of them, more than felt necessary and certainly more than any normal guild would have on watch duty. They were too far away for Damien to make out their basic information, but given how many of them there were, their coordinated weapons and their unerring attention to duty, it seemed they were not players.
“Are those NPCs?”
“Yup. Carlisle has a bunch of them. They aren’t as strong as your average player, but they’re much better at being guards. We’ve counted fifty, and they change shifts four times a day, so they have anywhere between a hundred and two hundred NPCs. Maybe more. If you could run interference while we smash our way through the front gate, that’d be grand.”
Lillian put her hand up to her ear and started talking, prompting everyone to turn their heads to face her regardless of whether they were within range of her voice.
“Remember, we aren’t looking for a prolonged engagement here. Play defensively, I want as many of you alive after this as possible. There’s a good chance they’re waiting for us. Not much we can do about that, but we can at least be prepared for it. I’ll be taking point on this one. If I’m in combat, I expect all of you to be with me. If you see me retreating, you’d best run. Get your potions in order, maintain your gear, refresh your food buffs and be ready to go in five minutes.”
As Rising Tide set up a quick camp, Lillian turned her attention back to Damien.
“I know you’re more a solo operative, so while we hit the gate I’ll leave you to it. You’ve got this, right?”
“Don’t know about that, but I’ll give it my best shot. I’m moving away from you lot to hide myself and find a better vantage point.”
“Alright, see you on the other side.”
She gave him a gentle shove and a nod. Then she turned back to her team, her features hardening before her face was even out of sight. Damien took a deep breath and left them behind. At least he’d avoided being killed by Rising Tide. He ran around the edge of the clearing, distancing himself from them as much as possible in the short time he’d been given. His minions eagerly came to join him, relieved of his confusing instructions not to attack the humans any longer.
Damien ran for four minutes before coming to a halt. His route had taken him most of the way round, though still not quite to the edge of the terrain. The wall was easily larger than any of the human settlements, with the exception of Camelot.
Damien took stock of his minions and tried to decide what to do. His first plan was to fly Noigel to the top of the wall and Demon Gate to him directly, but getting past the guards would require more than just an imp nonchalantly flapping its way across the gap. Even at night, the white snow on such open terrain would make moving targets pretty obvious against them. Fortunately, the wraith’s stealth mitigated that problem. He’d start with the wraith, then move the minions in while the guards were distracted by Rising Tide.
He placed the wraith at the threshold of the forest. Then he cast his eyes out to the right, waiting for his cue.
Thirty seconds later, a steady stream of players started filing out from the wood. Damien squinted and could just about make out Lillian at the front. They’d barely left the tree line when a bell rang out, echoing down into the valley below. As Rising Tide broke into a run, a second and then a third alarm pierced the night.
Go time.
“Possession.”
He’d no sooner taken on his wraith’s form than he leaned as far forward as he could go, the ground disappearing underneath him as he tore across it. The lack of obstacles may have prevented him from moving in cover, but the wraith had superior stealth and blinding speed in the dark. ‘Shadow Beast’ was one of the best unique skills in his minion roster, putting even his own ‘Shadow Walker’ to shame. Despite starting out after
Lillian’s party, Damien reached the wall long before. He did not stop, hitting it and immediately gliding up it without losing speed.
It was strange, looking at the wall from this angle. Usually an ascent in this form would take no longer than three seconds. This wall was massive. Damien was still marveling at the size of it when the harsh shriek of metal heralded a series of slats opening above. Flaming arrows poked out of the gaps, all of them facing toward Lillian’s encroaching party.
The arrows themselves were not too much of a problem for Damien personally, but the fires were a mild threat. If they cast enough light, the wraith could lose its grip on the wall. Damien slowed to a stop and waited for the arrows to be loosed, but it appeared none of the guards were close enough to Lillian to fire. They were just holding their arrows there, lighting up the wall in a long line and blocking his path. Only further down the wall were they loosing their arrows.
The first light of priest-conjured Sanctuary spells encompassed Lillian’s party, a radiant impenetrable dome under which the outnumbered party grouped as they ran forward. The domes could not be pierced by projectiles, but it cost mana to keep them deployed and each projectile would drain the caster’s mana directly. The light projected by the spell as an unavoidable secondary effect ensured there were a lot of projectiles coming their way.
Damien turned and sped along the wall toward the middle, underneath the firing archers, then went straight through before they could prepare another volley. Their coordination might have been imposing and impressive, but it left gaps ripe for exploitation.
As he neared the top of the wall a volley of spears shot over the side, whistling past him on their way down. Lillian’s party was nearing the gates, and they were now in range. The spears weren’t just for show: they could be hurled at enemies from above, and Damien could only imagine how fast they’d be going by the time they reached ground level. Sure enough, the first wave of spears was immediately followed by a sound not dissimilar to shattering glass as the first of the Sanctuary spells shattered to pieces.
Everyone was definitely focused on the gate now. Damien ordered Noigel to move all the flying minions in, instructing them to head for the edge of the wall, where it met with the mountain. Until they arrived, he’d have to do what he could with the wraith.
Damien drew level with the top of the wall at the same time as a guard leaned over it, hurling a spear toward the clustered mass at the gates. Damien had a perfect shot at his exposed chest. He drove his arm through it without a second thought, then pulled him over the edge for good measure.
They were leaning over the ramparts to throw straight down. How convenient. Damien zipped between the holes in the wall, waiting for the NPCs to predictably lean over each time. He killed a third the same way as the first two, allowing gravity to do the bulk of his work for him, then decided it was still too slow. He’d have to do something a bit more drastic to pull any meaningful amount of aggro off Lillian and onto himself.
Alrighty. He could use this wall to his advantage. He zipped over the edge, stabbed a guard through the side, then another one, then ran back over the other side. It was risky and unrewarding. The guards were level 50, he hadn’t killed either of the two he’d stabbed and there was an abundance of torchlight all across the ramparts. He’d certainly draw more attention this way, even if it was less effective.
A chorus of cries rang out behind him as he disappeared over the edge, but Damien was already gone. He moved further down the wall, to a place that hadn’t been alerted to his presence, and did the same thing again.
It was when Damien came up for the third time that he saw the results of his hard work. Most of the guards had drawn back from the edge of the wall and were on the defensive. Progress. Too much progress. He was spotted almost immediately as he came up and all the guards in his vicinity were on their guard, waiting to repel him.
Damien went straight over the other side of the wall without touching anyone. No damage, but he’d definitely bought Lillian some ti—
A series of bright blue orbs below caught his attention. There was a Portal Stone placed a distance behind the gate, and players were arriving at it. Besides the Portal Stone, there was nothing behind the wall whatsoever.
He’d thought the rest of Carlisle would’ve been relocated to stand behind the wall, but there was nothing. As perplexing as it was, Damien had other priorities. The blue orbs had stopped coming, for now, and they’d heralded the arrival of only a handful of players. Damien saw no more than fifteen, each of them presumably an elite player-killing success story. He caught sight of BiggusDickus pretty effortlessly, although it was harder to make out the less physically gifted of them from so far above.
One did draw his attention, though. A player had appeared right below him on the ground, seemingly out of nowhere. The new arrival pressed a hand against the wall and almost immediately twisted his head up to stare exactly at where Damien was. Which was odd, because between the wraith’s Shadow Beast and the pitch black it shouldn’t have been possible to see him, even with night vision.
A door had opened up next to this player and a battalion of NPC heavy infantry was filing out of it in two ranks, forming up in front of the gate. They had spears, like their comrades above, but they were also far bulkier, equipped with heavy armor and huge rectangular shields. They were locking into each other as they arrived in position.
So the town guard were all stationed inside the wall itself. And this guy was calling them out. There was only one person this could be. Now he was looking up, Damien could see his face and the name had appeared above his head. Magnitude. No class name. No level indication. All question marks.
A secret class at least ten levels higher than Damien. The main event. The leader of the opposition was directly below him. If Damien killed him fast enough, neither his class nor his level would matter very much. It was probably a coincidence he was looking up. He was just looking at the guardsmen throwing spears over the wall at Damien’s retreating form. Yeah. That made sense. Damien had gotten lucky. He could kill this guy, here and now.
Damien changed course to position himself directly above Magnitude and dropped straight downward. Magnitude’s gaze followed him all the way to his new location. Hmm. That’s not good. But he still wasn’t moving.
Damien’s arms were all the way back and ready to scythe through his adversary’s head when, without looking away, Magnitude slammed both fists against the wall and his health dropped by a third. Damien was laser-focused on his adversary, trying to figure out why his health was dropping. Magnitude couldn’t have done that much damage to himself just by hitting the wall, surely?
It was the wrong question to be asking himself. Damien didn’t notice the two blocks of metal forming left and right, rising out of the wall’s pristine surface ahead of him. He was already in between them when the walls literally closed in on him. The cubes smashed into each other, with Damien’s wraith perfectly caught in the middle.
Damien Blinked and opened his eyes. So much for ending this quickly. The hell hound was standing at the base of the tree, growling back into the forest. There may have been enemies nearby, but Damien’s primary concern was with Lillian’s group at the gates. Damien rang Lillian immediately but she didn’t pick up before he realized a different problem. Noigel’s group had arrived at the far end of the ramparts. He stared at the conflict and concentrated his thoughts into a single order.
Noigel, I need to Gate in! Give me an option!
He turned back to the gate and could just about catch the cluster of Rising Tide players outside it, a new Sanctuary spell apparently holding. The archers at the mid-level were all focused on bringing it down and sparks were flying off the top of it. Damien’s attention was drawn back to the end of the ramparts by a small, burning figure. It was an imp. Noigel had sent it into a torch to set it on fire so Damien could find it across the vast distance. The evil little genius.
Damien braced himself, then Demon Gated. His senses were overwhelm
ed as he went from peace and quiet to utter chaos. His party of imps and succubi were outnumbered and outmatched. Guards were moving back to them from the middle, where they’d reconvened to pelt spears at Lillian’s group, to deal with the new threat.
Right then. He sent an imp flying over them, then dropped it down and Imp-loded it as best he could. The succubi cast Circle of Hell directly over the seething mass, burning the guards and threatening to burn anyone else who wanted to reach them. He’d been too slow; one of the guards had rushed past the Imp-plosion’s radius and was en route to run him through.
It was at this moment Lillian chose to answer Damien’s call.
“Busy! What do you want?”
“Fall back! We’re not gonna make it!”
He sent another imp to whap into the guard’s face, but the guard kept on running at him. Damien barely avoided impalement only to be pushed to the ground as the rest of the guardsman crashed into him.
“We’re going through the gate, end of story!”
At such close proximity and with the guard’s sight still blocked, Damien’s daggers were a far better choice. Which would’ve been fine if his dead enemy was not wedged in on top of him and there weren’t more guards on the way.
He wanted to give Lillian all the information he had to convince her to turn back, but his circumstances were making it difficult. More guards were coming in the Imp-losion’s wake, and Damien was still indisposed. They’d have a much easier time stabbing him now he couldn’t dodge. Damien flew an imp into them, keeping it low, and yelled out the only spell that might help him survive.
“Ex-Imp-losion!”
The arriving guards were thrown up and back the way they’d come, if they were lucky, and over the wall if they weren’t. Damien only had three charges on the spell, but that had been enough to disrupt the offensive, temporarily. The imp had been just above the floor and two of them had been fired out of the rift unfavorably, hitting the floor or the balustrade at high speeds. Ex-Imp-losions created a lot of ex-imps. The third had been launched at speed into the air at an angle.