The Kartoss Gambit (The Way of the Shaman: Book #2)

by Vasily Mahanenko

  "It doesn't matter," Tisha waved him aside and gave me her paw. And suddenly it all clicked in my head. The smith wasn't screaming his head off in terror that such a scary beast was standing right in front of him: which means it's not the first time he's seen a Vagren. But Tisha...

  "Oh, Slate, you..." the girl growled, lowering her head.

  "Tisha, what are you doing here?" the smith began to ask, but I chose this moment to act: I was already on the go, so with one small jump I threw the Rose of Eluna on Slate. Let's see if I was mistaken.

  "Mahan, don't!" Tisha started to say, when mist started to swirl around Slate. In a couple of seconds it dissipated revealing a two-metre-high bear.

  "MAHAN! NO!" this werebear managed to roar as I threw the trap under its feet. We've got you now, my pretty!

  "Stop!" now it was Tisha's turn to growl in anger. Why? Didn't she see how he transformed? "Mahan, open the trap!"

  "Tisha, is everything all right with you? This is the mist beast! You've seen him yourself!"

  "He's no monster!"

  "Yeah, right, he's a kind and gentle two-meter teddy bear with huge fangs and claws!"

  "Mahan!

  "Tisha, stop destroying my brain. We'd better go to the square and tell the others... Tisha, no!"

  The girl took out her own trap and threw it under my feet. There was no way to dodge it, so the time for me stopped.

  "Mahan — don't make any sudden moves, or you might get hurt as well," I heard Tisha's voice almost immediately. For me, a player in a prison capsule, the time in the trap flew by unnoticed. Whether just a minute went by or if it was almost morning by now remained a mystery. An enormous bear was lying next to me, with one paw twisted at an unnatural angle. It was probably broken.

  "Mahan, let me introduce Slate to you, a member of the Werebeast race. And... He's my future husband, so I trust him like myself. He cannot be the mist beast. I'm sorry I threw the trap at you, but you left me no choice."

  "MAHAN," the roar of the werebear would have made my blood freeze, had I had any. "BELIEVE HER."

  "I...

  "Help!" the Beatwick night was pierced by Beth's scream. "Mahan! It's here!"

  "Stay here," I shouted to Tisha, "Look after him! We'll figure out who's who later!"

  Beth's shout came from the direction of the forest, where our hunt had begun. Tomorrow morning I'll find Slate and, ignoring the fact that he's much bigger and stronger than me, punch in his face or, in his case, his insolent bear muzzle, and he can go...

  Beth's lifeless body lying by the stockade stopped me in my tracks. Anything but this! I immediately selected her and sighed in relief: she had ten Hit Points remaining. Out of... She was level 250! Who would beat a High Priestess with that many levels? I entered the Spirit summoning mode and started to send Healing Spirits on Beth. Ten Hit Points, twenty, fifty... It took me sixty seven Spirits to get her Hit Points back to maximum. And that was despite me having a crazy amount of Intellect! I somehow wasn't all that keen on running across the mist beast again. As if reading my mind the source of the peculiar smell appeared next to me. The monster had come for its prey.

  Great red eyes of the beast stared at me. The swirls of mist receded a little and I once again saw the cause of my recent troubles: enormous black claws. Did that mean that today I was looking at yet another respawn? I've really had it with this bastard! What the heck are you doing in a location for 20-level players? I gripped the Tambourine and the Mallet, naively thinking that even if I didn't manage to beat it, I'd at least heal myself, I backed off in small steps. The fence! Now it really was the end!

  One had to give it to this piece of incomprehensible shit — in all our encounters it had shown considerable mastery in choosing the method for sending me for respawn. It was either the claws, or poison or strangling. It didn't repeat itself once, the inventive scumbag!

  "Fluffy, take it down!" a melodious voice rang in the silence that surrounded us. Mist once again spread around the beast and the silhouette of a great tiger rushed past me. There was a subdued growl and the tiger crashed into the mist. Fluffy? I lifted my eyes and saw a girl right in front of me, standing on the stockade. A player! She jumped down and walked a few paces forward, leaving me behind her. An exemplary righteous defender of the presumably innocent, dammit.

  "Some nooberhood you have here. What the heck is this?" she turned around to me, lifting an eyebrow in question.

  "The mist obstructs the properties, so I really have no idea what sort of a mob this is," I replied, getting my breath back. She was a 93-level elf, Mirida the Farsighted. Her face looked terribly familiar, but I just couldn't remember where I've seen her before! Could our paths have crossed when I was playing my Hunter? All right, we can leave all that for later, right now we had to solve the problem at hand. "Careful! That beast can one-shot you in a jiffy!"

  Mirida chuckled, but then grew serious when she saw the Life Bar of her pet. The tiger kept disappearing and reappearing in the mist, flicking its tail, but its Hit Points were falling with a frightening speed.

  "Fluffy — armor, heal, dodge!" the elf quickly commanded and started sending arrow after arrow into the mist. For a moment I forgot about the fight and stared at the girl. Today seemed to be the day for revelations! I was looking at a high-level Beastmaster in person! To rear a pet like Fluffy you had to possess simply angelic patience — I managed to level up my one only to level 20 and then gave up on this tedious business. It took up just too much gametime to feed, train, walk and rear a decent pet, so many players prefer not to make an effort with a virtual friend. Only now, when I had Draco and seven and a half years of prepaid gametime I was eager to focus on levelling him up. In this case Fluffy had even more levels than his mistress — a triple command is possible only for a level 100 pet. That was some killing machine: a tank, a healer and an excellent fighter. With support from arrows he had an excellent chance to last until the morning when the beast would disappear.

  I didn't believe for a minute that Mirida could win this one. I got to know our misty opponent far too well in the recent weeks.

  "Mahan!" Beth's weak groan came like a breath of fresh air. She's alive! That was the main thing! "The beast is here!"

  "Don't worry, I'm on it. How do you feel."

  "I'll live. Help me up. Who's this?" she pointed to Mirida, who was biting her lips in the face of her own helplessness. The beast was winning the fight with Fluffy on all fronts. If she didn't let the pet go now he was guaranteed to lose ten levels. Mirida knew this full well, so when Fluffy's Hit Points approached zero she dismissed him. The mist monster swung around itself a few more seconds, not quite believing the enemy was gone, and then once again turned to the three of us.

  "What in the hells is this thing?!" shouted Mirida, still sending arrow after arrow into the mist.

  "I told you, I have no idea. It has 250 levels in it!"

  "THREE HUNDRED!" came a mocking voice from the beast as it lunged towards us.

  "In the name of Eluna! Let there be light!" as the beast rushed towards us, Beth shouted and lifted her arms. A dome of bright light formed around us into which the monster crashed, becoming stuck as a fly in a web. "Grant us light, oh Great Mother..."

  Beth began to call on Eluna to give her strength, hallow the earth and banish darkness and then switched from the common tongue to some other and I decided not to lose any time. The dome didn't destroy the monster's mist, its function was strictly defensive, but while the mist beast hung there an excellent idea popped into my head. I jumped to the monster, took a swing and smacked the Rose of Eluna straight into its forehead.

  Maybe I really shouldn't have done that...

  The wild roar of the beast was probably heard as far as Farstead. I was landed with a bunch of minute-long debuffs: 'Stun', 'Dumbness', 'Immobilisation' and a couple more brief ones, which vanished as I was examining the others. Judging by Mirida's downcast expression she was hit by the same stuff. With a wild jolt the beast tore itself out of the dome
of light and jumped over the fence. Where the heck do you think you're going? Hold it right there! I didn't manage to take a look at its properties, so now I was kicking myself for being such a slow coach.

  "Quick, after it!" I started to hurry the two ladies as soon as the debuffs expired. "Beth, the secret passage that you were using must be near here somewhere. Open it! Mirida, summon Fluffy, I'll heal him. Come on, hurry. It'll get away from us!"

  "Mahan! It's a Sclik! Are you crazy?" Mirida's panicked voice made me freeze. A Sclik!

  "Beth — the passage!" I continued to issue commands as I fought off the panic that now gripped me head to toe. "Now! A Sclik isn't as black as he's painted! He's got an amulet of Eluna on him — we could catch him and have a chat. Beth! You have a 300-level trap, just for him. Quick!"

  +1 to Charisma. Total: 7.

  "Yes, just a moment," hurried the priestess and I tried to remember all I knew about Scliks. Just my luck to get landed with one of these!

  Malabar players really liked to go on Raids into Kartoss and attack its castles. Once a group of a hundred players made it as far as the Nameless City, the capital of Kartoss, home to the Dark Lord with his Masters and Magisters. A Master is an equivalent of a Malabar Adviser and a Magister of a Herald. The raid group laid siege to the castle and then all twenty Magisters of Kartoss joined the battle. They could teleport to any point within the borders of their own Empire, so they appeared at the attackers' rear. But they didn't come alone — they brought their pets with them, the Scliks. The 300-level beasts demolished the raid group in less than a couple of minutes, leaving no chance of escape. After this there was a wave of discontent from the players and the Corporation created the Dungeon of Fear, where the main Boss was an equivalent of a Magister with his Sclik. As usual, the Phoenix players were the first to complete that Dungeon. About a year after it had been launched. The Magiser-Sclik team was very strong.

  By itself a Sclik is an enormous octopus that could take on any shape. It has an insane number of abilities, a very advanced Imitator and an impressive ability to learn. The Dungeon of Fear's design was special — the level of the boss was never higher than three levels above the highest-level player in the raid, so even level 10 players could try to complete it. What can I say? I tried it myself, so know of the Sclik's strength first hand.

  But what worried me even more now was the fact that a Sclik never travelled alone. It couldn't depart from its master's side for more than a few kilometers and this means that we had a Kartoss Magister based in Beatwick.

  "Done," shouted Beth, pointing to the passage. "The beast headed towards the temple."

  "How do you know?" I asked, although I could already see the answer plain enough. Dark blood, probably dripping from the injured head left burning spots on the ground a pretty flaming path that lead towards the temple.

  "Let's make a group. Beth, Mirida — accept my invitation! Let's go after it!" once the girls joined the group we dashed towards the temple.

  "It went inside! After it!"

  "Why in such a hurry, my children?" as soon as we ran into the temple, the priest of Vlast appeared from behind the altar. The priest's sleeves were rolled up high, showing arms that were currently covered up to the elbow in dark blood, dripping on the floor. He probably tried to take off the amulet.

  "Father..." Beth said in a subdued hoarse voice and fell on the floor. Judging by the frames, she was under the 'Petrify' debuff.

  "Mahan, I'm coming!" Tisha flew into the temple, saw Beth and froze, shifting a confused gaze from the priestess to the follower of Vlast. Though some follower he was... Judging from the fact that I was looking at a 400-level NPC, this was a Kartoss Magister in person.

  "And that is that," mumbled the priest, satisfied. "I was not permitted to fight a priestess of Eluna outside the temple — it would have caused such a magical din that all the Heralds would have dropped in to join us. But inside the temple I make the rules! Thank you again, Mahan. Once more you've made me a present," a chesty and gloating laugh of the Magister echoed through the building.

  "But you are the one who sent me to hunt the monster," I half-whispered, almost dumbstruck, but the Magister heard me.

  "So I did. You had to find the Vagren and hand it over to me. That was the point of my assignment. When you covered for Tisha I was incensed! I wanted to tear you apart with my own hands instead of using the Sclik! But I restrained myself and was rewarded! Beatwick is finished. All of Malabar is finished! Kartoss will have victory!"

  "Mahan, can you explain to me how a Magister ended up this far away from Kartoss? Are the Heralds completely blind?" Mirida's words snapped me out of it, returning my brain to a functional state. When we get out of here, I owe you a drink, elf gal.

  "Heralds?" the Magister laughed. "There is a ziggurat active here, my pretty. Right under this building. Not a single Herald can see what's happening here."

  "You are mistaken, 'holy father'" now it was my turn to enjoy myself. "I call upon Heralds: I need your help. Preferably of at least two of you," I added, when I saw the Magister start.

  There were two portal claps and two Heralds appeared in the temple.

  "You called us and we came. If you... Attack!"

  The quest 'Night Terror of the Village' has been completed.

  Lightning began to flash through the temple. Who's the stronger — a 400-level Magister on cursed ground or two 400-level Heralds on their territory? I guess we're about to find out. One of the Heralds covered us with a dome, so neither the ladies nor myself had much to worry about. We could just sit back and watch the fireworks.

  Ball Lightning, Cleansing Light, Suffering Darkness, Cursed Mist — the most terrible spells available in the game were seeing some action. If not for the Herald's dome our game avatars would've been blown to bits. The temple interior went up in flames, stone began to melt and then the battle was over: the Heralds turned out to be stronger. At some point the Sclik flew out from behind the altar and entered the fight. However, I noted that my amulet was still shining in its head. The Heralds barely took any notice of the Sclik: a few spells and the mist beast left Beatwick for good. That's one down.

  Another minute and the Magister found himself bound. The two Heralds, breathing heavily, sat on the ground and started to drink something. They were probably restoring their Hit Points and Mana. The fight with the Magister didn't go all that easy on them.

  "Mahan, I thank you on behalf of the Emperor. Now we know who coordinated all the works..."

  "MASTER!" came a wild scream from the false-priest of Vlast. "MASTER, I BEG YOU FOR HELP!"

  "Master? One of the four Advisers of the Dark Emperor?" I managed to ask before both Heralds froze with glassy eyes and someone entered the temple at a leisurely pace. I turned around and froze agape.

  'Search for the Dark Coordinator' quest completed.

  "I would've never thought that such a magnificent plan could fall through on account of a 20-level free citizen. Hello once again, Mahan."

  Mirida looked at me in complete incomprehension and I let the extent to which I had been a total dumbass sink in. How could I not guess this from the start? Everything was so darn obvious!

  Chapter Twelve

  The Finale

  "That's some place I landed in," whispered Mirida. "Some 20-30 level backwater — yeah right! A Magister with a Sklic, a Master... It's like the Dark Lord himself might turn up any moment!"

  The smiling Master was standing in the entrance of the temple, one hand raised in the direction of the Heralds. A ray of light was coming out of it, forming a sphere around them and, by the looks of it, had taken them out of the game. I looked up the Master's level. Finally! He was no longer 1*N, which was all I could see before, but level 450, as is appropriate for Masters and Advisers. I looked once again at the identity of the newcomer and found that I was kicking myself very hard. What a complete dolt!

  "Yes, dear lady, things are interesting around here. And it's set to get even more interesting in the
near future. Our Lord had spent a long time preparing for the invasion and it is finally underway."

  "What's the point of invading a village this far from Anhurs, and from Kartoss too, if it came to it?" Mirida just had to know. "From the point of view of common sense this is stupid."

  "Why do you say that? Really, just think about it. And while you're occupied with that, with your permission, I would also get some work done," the Master came up to the Magister, released him from his bonds and started to utter some kind of a spell. While he was thus occupied, I fitfully began summoning the Heralds. It's time they get their act together.

  "Don't trouble yourself, Mahan," the Master briefly turned to me. "Before coming here I covered the temple with a dome. The Heralds can hear your summons, but they don't know there to aim the portal." An amulet vibrated on the Master's chest. "Speaking! Continue to observe! These Heralds are so predictable. Since they can't figure out where to jump, thanks to the ziggurat, they started jostling near the fog. Like little children, honestly. Now you'll excuse me for a moment and then we'll continue our conversation."

  A shimmering veil appeared in the temple entrance and then the Maser turned around and continued with his incantation. The Magister, limping, disappeared behind the altar. That was probably the location of the local basement entrance. I glanced over the battle-worn group of Sklic hunters. Beth was lying on the floor — her 'Petrify' buff would last another 15 minutes. Mirida was motionless, but it was clear from her glassy eyes that she had exited full immersion and was now vigorously reading the forums. Or, perhaps writing in them about the current situation. I envied her. The last member of our wipe-group, Tisha, was lying next to Beth with a 20-minute 'Stun' debuff. Strange, I just don't remember her being frozen. Never mind, we'll put it down to the Master.

  So the Heralds don't know where to jump because they can't find an anchor point? That's bad. Very bad. Are they incapable of knocking two brain cells together and teleport straight to Beatwick? Daft NPCs!