Defender Light Online Four

by Larcombe, Tom

  “Okay, so long as you had something to eat. Eighty Orcs this time, though,” Eddie said, pausing to look at the line of adventurers streaming towards the walls, “we won't be outnumbered as badly as a few of the other attacks. Just this one and one more, then things can get back to normal.”

  Tiana leaned in to give him a kiss on the cheek and whispered in his ear while she was in close.

  “I also had to help Freyja with something. Something I didn't want to do in public since it leaves me pretty out of it, kind of like I'm asleep,” she said.

  “Oh, okay,” he replied.

  He had been feeling a little bit put out, even though he'd tried hard not to feel that way. Knowing that she was helping Freyja and not just a random acolyte made a difference to him since he considered Freyja a friend, kind of anyhow.

  As much of a friend as an AI deity in a game can be with a player of said game, he thought.

  “Well, at least this is almost over,” he continued.

  Eddie just wanted to get back to building his settlement. He knew he had to adventure also, but these past few days had been too much. He'd much rather do it the other way around where he snatched a few hours here and there to adventure, as opposed to snatching a few hours here and there to try to continue building his settlement.

  “I think once the tower is up I'm going to focus on all the buildings we want for the town as opposed to finishing the castle right up. Especially if there aren't any more attacks occurring then, building up the town proper is the right way to go,” he said. “Although I'm certainly glad that I started the castle walls when I did.”

  “It was certainly good timing, and don't worry, it wasn't what triggered all this Orc stuff,” Tiana said. “I had a little chat with a friend of ours and she said that it was jealousy on the part of one of her... peers?”

  Eddie cocked his head and stared at her.

  “Loki,” Tiana mouthed silently.

  Suddenly it all made sense. He knew a little about the Norse mythos, especially Loki since he'd been the feature of more than one movie or plot in a story. He knew all about Loki's jealousy and how he coveted what any other god had.

  Since Freyja had just recently started building up followers, gotten her main temple built, and become much more involved in the game, he understood why Loki might have taken action. There was one thing Eddie couldn't figure out though.

  “Why me?” he asked.

  “You're one of her favorites, and he was hoping for collateral damage, trying to drive us away.”

  Oh great, so I've got one of the 'gods' here focusing on me and trying to mess my stuff up just because another one of the 'gods' likes me? What the hell? he thought. I'm glad Aaron's a nice guy and we get along, otherwise I'd worry about getting fired for the trouble this all is probably going to cause him.

  They arrived at the castle walls and entered through the portcullis. Tiana took position on the ground under the wall walks, waiting for people to call out for healing. Eddie got up on the walks, went to the corner that faced the direction the Orcs had been attacking from and called out.

  “Hey, for the first fifteen minutes of battle or so. Anyone within these lines...”

  He paused and chalked in some lines on the wood of the walk.

  “will heal at an accelerated rate. So, any of you who have lower health and worry about it might want to start off with firing from in the circle. The wizards tossing their spells will be right in the corner and they'll be in the circle also. Make sure to leave enough room for anyone else that needs healing to step into it if you can, alright?”

  Eddie put another mark on the wood, right in the center of the others he'd made, intending on using it as the central point of his Accelerated Heal as soon as the Orcs started charging. He made sure he stayed within fifty feet of that mark as he paced nervously up and down the wall walk.

  ~ ~ ~

  A piercing whistle caught Eddie's attention. Once again, there were a bunch of melee fighters who hadn't come into the walls, intending to attack the Orcs in hand to hand after they'd been softened up by the archers and wizards within the walls. It was one of them, and he was gesturing to the northeast.

  Eddie stared out and saw the dark blotch in the fields. It was moving towards them at a fast pace. As it resolved itself, Eddie stopped and just stared for a bit.

  The front row of perhaps ten Orcs were riding on what looked like giant wolves. The wolves were easily as fast as a horse and much more agile. Behind the wolf riders were a bunch of Orcs, maybe fifty or so, carrying melee weapons. Behind them came the missile Orcs. The game seemed to be going all out this time since behind them there was a single giant Orc.

  The huge Orc called out something and the Orcs all came to a halt, well before the point they'd stopped earlier to assemble the catapult. The huge Orc scanned the area, then barked what sounded like orders.

  At the sound of the Orc's voice, the wolf riders peeled off to the side, guarding the Orcs' left flank, where they'd been attacked last time.

  This game cheats, Eddie thought. I sure wish I had the range to target that Orc leader right now, somehow I think they're going to be a lot more effective with him in command.

  He quickly tossed off his Accelerated Healing spell, noticing that several people had placed themselves inside its area of effect.

  At another barked order from the huge Orc in charge, the melee Orcs broke into a trot, headed for the walls. The Orcs with crossbows followed along at a slightly slower pace, slowing and stopping once they were in range.

  The crossbows were already cocked, and the Orcs began to shoot bolts as Eddie called out 'Fire!'.

  Arrows flew towards the Orcs with crossbows. Eddie had scanned them closely and found two Orcs in their midst without crossbows, so he was targeting one of those two with one of his Arcing arrows. They looked to be wearing the regalia of Orcish shamans and he wanted to get those two Orcs out of the way as soon as he could.

  “Eddie,” the voice called out loudly from right below his feet. “Are they in the target area?”

  Eddie glanced out and saw that the Orcs with crossbows had come in a bit farther than the area they'd ranged.

  “No, they're in from it a bit, but fire anyhow, we're likely to get some at chest level,” he replied, firing his bow again.

  A massive 'Thrum' came from behind him as the catapult was fired, its load of finished stones flying over the heads of the defenders. As he fired another arrow, he watched the stones come slamming down on the right side of the crossbow Orcs. The stones drove through them, leaving the smashed remains of the Orcs behind. A couple of the stones hit more than one Orc, taking out six of the twenty crossbows.

  Too bad they didn't hit the shamans, Eddie thought as he drew another Arcing arrow and launched it at a shaman with light gathering around his hands.

  The shaman got the spell off before Eddie's arrows hit and, as Eddie watched, two of the wolves screening the Orc forces from the melee adventurers in the field grew to nearly double their normally huge size.

  “Eddie, adjustment,” Charles called out.

  “Angle it to hit twenty feet to the left of the first shot,” Eddie replied.

  That orientation would strike directly in the remaining crossbow Orcs and, if they were lucky, could potentially catch both shamans.

  A groaning sound, followed by a massive cloud of dust obscuring the battlefield, caught Eddie's attention. He glanced over to find half of the crowd of Orcish melee fighters missing, a massive sinkhole taking up the spot they'd been in a few seconds earlier, screams echoing up from within it. As he watched, the rest of the melee Orcs started to speed up, only to find their way forward blocked by a ten foot tall wall of flames that curved around their far side.

  Unlike his wall of thorns, it looked like the caster could manipulate this wall after it was cast and as Eddie watched, it started curling in, pushing the remaining Orcs toward the sinkhole that was still billowing dust and screams of pain.

  Another 'Thr
um' sounded from behind him and he turned his attention back towards his own targets. One of the shamans was down now, and the other looked like a pincushion. Eddie added another of his Arcing arrows to that shaman as rocks rained down out of the sky, breaking up the rest of the missile Orcs' formation.

  The wall of fire closed inexorably on the edge of the sinkhole. Several Orcs willingly ran into the hole, but the rest stood fast as the wall engulfed them. The wall continued on, leaving those Orcs wounded but standing. As the flames met the dust still billowing from the sinkhole there was a dull 'whump!' that Eddie felt through the wall walk beneath him. A jet of flame shot up out of the hole, igniting the dust in the air, and a moment later the screams from the hole ceased.

  The catapult thrummed again and this time when Eddie turned to track the payload, he didn't see anything but a shimmer flying through the air.

  “Fuck me, he cleared it!” Stalker called out from down below.

  Eddie groaned, but turned his attention back to the Orcs and started firing.

  The melee troops weren't holding well, the enlarged giant wolves tearing holes in their lines. So that was Eddie's new target. He wasn't sure how much his arrows were going to do against the enormous wolves rampaging through the adventurers, but he had about a quiver's worth of Arcing arrows left, and he was willing to use them all for this if he had to.

  As he targeted a wolf, he saw the rider torn from the saddle, blood gouting from its back as one of the sneaky type adventurers tried to gain control over the wolf.

  Heh, never thought I'd wish Becky were here, Eddie thought.

  His blood ran cold a moment later when he saw a distinctive feline shape darting in to slash one of the enormous wolves across the nose.

  “Lucky, no!” he cried.

  He started firing as fast as he could, his finger wearing raw from the effort. Lucky was darting and dodging away from the wolf. She went under its belly at least twice that he saw. The wolf, while agile, was at a disadvantage from its increased size now. It took longer for it to whirl around, either to attack or defend. Meanwhile it was a target large enough that Eddie could've hit it blindfolded.

  As more and more of the archers noticed where Eddie was firing, attention was drawn to the plight of the melee adventurers. Other arrows started joining his own, both on the massive wolf and on the rest of the wolves attacking over there.

  A cry distracted him from his target. His glance flickered back towards the crossbow Orcs, only to find Karl standing out there over the corpse of the last shaman. There were several crossbow Orcs still standing there, but he was inside of their minimum range. While they could fire at him, they weren't going to be doing a lot if they did.

  There were still archers focused out that way, so Eddie turned back to the giant wolf, only to find Lucky dangling from its throat, her jaws locked and worrying away at it.

  Eddie went back to work, firing his bow. His fingertips were bleeding now, but he didn't care. Finally he reached back and found that he was out of arrows. The wolf was staggering, but had managed to pry Lucky off of its neck finally. Its neck was bleeding heavily, but Lucky was limping on three paws now. Eddie threw his bow down and launched himself off the wall.

  You have upgraded the skill Acrobatics to (5). I should've known it, you've flipped out.

  He wasn't worried about the melee Orcs, they'd been circling the other side of the walls, but the melee adventurers were still losing, and the massive wolf was about to pounce on Lucky.

  He sprinted across the battlefield and as soon as he was close enough, he threw out a Wall of Thorns, one that encircled Lucky with the thorns on the outside. He had enough area of affect for the wall left that he formed it into a figure eight, the larger portion of the figure circled around the massive wolf, this time with the thorns facing in. He hadn't even had to do anything other than dictate the shape of the wall either, all the thorns were technically facing the same way in relation to the wall.

  Alright, I can't burn the thorns, that would get Lucky also, but I can get close enough to Frostbite that damned wolf, Eddie thought.

  He sprinted towards his wall of thorns, the only thought in his mind to keep Lucky from getting hurt any more. Once he was close enough, he halted, caught his breath for a second, then cast his spell.

  You have upgraded the spell Frostbite to (5). At least Acrobatics can be closely related to being a mighty warrior. Are you sure you don't want to reclass as a wizard?

  Eddie ignored the snark and cast the spell a second time when he saw the wolf still moving. One more casting after that and the wolf was still. He quickly targeted an Accelerated Healing at the center of the wall of thorns area that encompassed Lucky.

  With any luck, she'll be all healed up before that spell runs out of duration, he thought.

  It was only then that Eddie realized he'd attracted the attention of the remaining wolf riders.

  ~ ~ ~

  Chapter Fourteen

  Aaron finished up the code to provide resources for the AI splinters that would need them if Freyja's plan worked. He stretched and realized that it was nearly break time.

  I'll text Lydia and see if she's getting to go on break at her normal time today, he thought.

  It wasn't like either of them actually had a 'normal' schedule. Both of their jobs were of the sort that you had no choice about when things had to be done. If that happened to overlap with a break or lunch, you got to take said break or lunch as soon as you could once you'd finished what you were working on.

  Her answering text told him that she didn't have any emergencies warping her schedule today, so they could meet up for break. He'd been trying to figure out just how much his NDA would allow him to tell her, and then realized that since she was another employee of the same company, even if not in the same section as him, that he could tell her a lot more than he'd been thinking he could.

  Hell, I could probably tell her about everything but the new pods, he thought. If they ever have a problem with networking, or need to be upgraded in relation to it, then I could probably even tell her that. But telling her that I've got testers in the game? That shouldn't conflict with the NDA in the slightest. She's been telling me all kinds of stuff about what she does, I want to be able to do the same for her. I just need to make sure that she knows there are some things I can't talk about still.

  He met her in the cafeteria and as they ate a snack, he offered to show her some of what he did.

  “Well, I might have to split in a hurry if I get an alert,” she said. “But otherwise, sure, why not?”

  When they finished eating he led her back to his work area, scanning them in with his badge.

  “Wow, I've just got an overgrown closet for an office, this is huge,” she said when they entered.

  “I've got an office also, but I don't use it for anything but meetings, it's too small. A lot of this,” he said, gesturing around the space that contained computers, pods, and all the other things he and his team needed to do their job, “is stuff that I need to be able to be hands-on with, so it just makes sense that I do most of my work here.”

  He sat down at his system and Lydia chuckled.

  “Looks like a gaming rig on steroids, even down to the multiple monitors,” she commented.

  He grinned at her.

  “It is, and it isn't. If I go in game I've got a body suit for it, or I can just use the headset, depending on what I need to do. This is for monitoring things in game that might need my attention. Like I said, I've got some testers in the game so I need to check things out sometimes. Here, let me make sure they aren't doing anything we shouldn't peek at. If they aren't, I'll pull up their output on two of the monitors here.”

  A scan of the logs told him that Eddie and Karl weren't currently anywhere private, as a matter of fact they were immediately adjacent to a lot of other adventurers.

  Oh yeah, there was another one of the waves due in around now, Aaron thought.

  He duplicated their optical output to the scr
eens and glanced at them. Karl was moving slowly, stalking an Orc that had to easily be at least eight feet tall. Eddie, on the other hand, was firing his bow as quickly as possible at another massive opponent. A giant wolf that looked to be twice the size of its normal template. As they watched, Eddie leapt off the wall, the video spinning crazily in a circle as he landed in a dive roll to absorb the impact.

  “What is he doing?” Lydia asked.

  Aaron pointed at the screen. He'd spotted Lucky facing off with the wolf that had been Eddie's target.

  “That, right there? That's his pet. It looks like she bitten off more than she can chew and Eddie's trying to go to her rescue.”

  “Wait, that mountain lion looking thing is his pet?”

  “It's a bobcat, he got it when it was younger, but the game has things grow up fast.”

  “That's a bobcat? It's way too big,” Lydia said.

  “Game Logic, especially when an animal becomes a pet, it can exceed normal limitations on size, level, and the like. Not only that, but one of the goddesses in the game, well the AI that runs it anyhow, seems to have a fondness for this cat. So I expect that Lucky, that's the cat's name, will get even larger before she stops growing.”

  “What's he doing now?” she asked.

  It took Aaron a moment to realize that Eddie was casting. Opron hadn't had any spells to use when he was in game, but he'd seen enough others casting to know what was going on.

  “Casting spells,” Aaron said.

  As they watched, the bobcat and wolf were separated by a wall of thorns, each contained within a circle formed by the wall. Then the wolf started sprouting patches of white rime on its fur as Eddie continued to cast.

  “Oh, is that a frost spell or something?” Lydia asked.

  “Probably. I don't know what spells Eddie has, but that's a pretty good bet.”