“Right, aggro tables, got it. But we start moving that way, right?” Sunday asked.
“Yes, quietly. We want to get to the edge of cover without being detected,” I explained. “As soon as we are there, in position, and assuming we haven’t been discovered, we charge into the fight.”
“And we go after the back rows, right?” Death asked, perking up.
“Yes,” I said. Sunday was an older man with very dark skin. His Human avatar was wrapped in leather that suggested he was subtler, maybe even stealthy. The large scythe he had strapped to his back completely dispelled that notion. “What class are you?” I asked unthinkingly. “Sorry, I just don’t think I’ve seen anyone using a scythe before.”
“It’s fine, I’m an Executioner,” Sunday answered.
“What’s that?” Death asked.
“It’s a Bounty Hunter class,” Sunday answered. “I get some improved tracking skills but most of my abilities are geared toward PvP.”
“So, you hunt other players and . . .” Death swallowed thickly.
“Not just players, but all those that have a bounty,” Sunday answered. “But my level is too low to get any really good bounties. Then I heard about this event and thought it might be a good chance to level up and make some money.”
“Has business been good?” Death asked. His eyes were fixed on the blade of the scythe.
“Very,” said Sunday, grinning broadly.
“Alright, that’s enough chatter, silence going forward. If you don’t know ‘Stealth’, now would be a good time to learn,” I said, leading the quiet walk east toward the battle for the brewery. I didn’t actually want to use ‘Stealth’ as it would slow us down significantly, but I did want us quiet on our approach.
When open space in front of the brewery became visible, I held up a closed fist, hoping everyone had seen enough action vids to know that meant stop. I could see the battle raging down the mountain slope in front of the brewery. My eyes sought out Rose primarily. I was relieved to see her alive though I couldn’t say well. It looked like she and the other players were struggling.
I looked north and saw Olaf was still fighting off their Archer squad above the brewery, although it was too far away to see how it was going.
I also finally got my first look at the brewery. It was yet another building cut right into the mountainside. It looked like Hammerton had cut away a wedge of the mountain or strip-mined in a way that the face of the brewery stood two stories tall with a large barn door entrance, and large windows spread above the doors and to either side. Though they appeared to have been blocked from the inside by barrels and the doors were firmly shut. The rest of the brewery must have been built inside the mountain, though how far it went I had no idea.
Looking back to Rose’s battle, I could see she was steadily losing ground now. It was the ideal time to strike. I lifted my arm again then swung it forward. I started at a light jog, looking for the most dangerous opponent, the level 22 player, except I could not find him or her. Either the player was using ‘Stealth’ or Rose and her people had already killed him or her.
I ended up settling on a level 17 player, a healer if I was to guess. Every second or two he would fire a bolt of white light from his staff that would impact with a player causing that player’s health to jump. I also noticed that not one of his spells was directed toward one of the Anvilton soldiers.
By now I was using ‘Body Control’ and the subskill ‘Sprint’ to cover as much ground as possible, just waiting to jump and get that bonus damage.
Body Control
Level: 95
Experience: 6.11%
Subskill: Sudden Boost
Strength Boost: +1.95-Strength to a specific muscle group for 5 seconds (additional stacks reset timer)
Skill Stamina Cost: 20 per boost
Subskill: Pacing
Stamina Cost Reduced: 1.95% Reduced Stamina Cost to all skills (excluding Body Control Subskills)
Subskill: Amped Up
Strength Boost: +1.95-Strength for 5 seconds (additional stacks reset timer)
Skill Stamina Cost: 100 per boost
Subskill: Sprint
Run Speed Boost: Increase Running speed by 20% for 5-seconds.
Skill Stamina Cost: 20 per boost
And finally, I was in range. I used the ‘Amped Up’ subskill to strengthen my entire body, flowing SP into my limbs, allowing me to shoot into the air, flying for a brief moment before the tip of my spear pierce through the healer’s chest and slammed him bodily to the ground.
I didn’t have time to stop and admire my damage, I yanked my spear free and struck the prone healer three more times, quickly ending his life. I turned to find my next target only to dive out of the path of a charging Warrior in full chainmail armor.
“Missed,” the Warrior complained as he skidded to the stop.
“Oh no you won’t,” I said, sprinting after him.
Goradar had charged at another unsuspecting player, Death Hunter. The mousy duel crossbow wielder barely survived the impact and it looked like Goradar intended to finish him off.
I leaped again, letting my spear do the talking for me, I easily stabbed through the linked chains of his armor, dealing damage, not nearly enough to kill him, but more than enough to make him miss the hit on Death.
Death was quickly scrambling away and once he was back on his feet he was fumbling with a potion.
“You cost me a kill,” Goradar stated, turning to face me.
“And your point?” I asked, already moving forward, stabbing at the gap in his armor between his arm and his shoulder, only for the Orc’s shield to get in the way.
Goradar swung a large battle ax with his free hand but rather than dodge back away from it, I stepped forward and slid below the attack. My spear jabbed into the exposed armpit, a critical hit and so perfect that the arm was severed cleanly. The new bleed effect doing a massive -312-HP, then -316-HP and quickly counting up.
Goradar ignored the lost arm and swung around with his shield, catching my body and lifting me from the ground. He then used the shield to toss me a dozen feet away from him.
I landed roughly and was forced to roll as another player joined the fray. I hit the interloper with ‘Lesser Holy Shock’ stunning him and giving me a chance to chase after Goradar. I leaped in again, though the distance was shorter, the advantage of the attack remained the same except that Goradar was prepared this time and brought his shield up to block.
Just physical damage wasn’t enough against this guy. As much fun as I was having testing out my newly upgraded spear, I had neglected to use my magic much. I cast a quick ‘Beginner Holy Fire’, adding a healthy damage over time effect that would stack nicely with the bleeding damage he was taking.
Beginner Holy Fire
Level: 4
Experience: 7.14%
Spell Damage: 112-113 per second
Spell Cast Speed: Instant Cooldown: 10 seconds
Spell Mana Cost: 248
Spell Duration: 30 seconds
Spell Effect (Active): Burn a single target with Holy fire. (Stackable x4)
I would have tried to add a ‘Holy Smite’ but Goradar wasn’t having it. He started swinging wildly with his shield, forcing me to use my ‘Acrobatics’ to dodge him. I tried to counter where I could, but the brutish Orc wasn’t giving me any openings. I tried sliding around him and try to stab him in the back of the leg, but his shield was there. I tried flipping over him to strike while I was in the air, but his shield was there. I wanted to know very badly just how high this guys ‘Shield’ skill was because this was ridiculous, even Rose didn’t give me this much trouble and she had two shields.
Not forgetting how much time had passed, I expected the player I had stunned to jump in and help G
oradar, but a quick glance showed he was riddled with crossbow bolts courtesy of Death Hunter.
My lapse cost me, Goradar got another hit, knocking me back but not doing much damage. Refocused, I concentrated on dodging and waiting for an opening. After 10-seconds of dodging, I added another stack of ‘Beginner Holy Fire’, increasing the damage he was suffering, but he just wasn’t going down fast enough. I was able to see that Goradar was starting to get tired though, his breath becoming more labored with each attack. Another 10-seconds and I hit him with another stack of ‘Beginner Holy Fire’ and now that it was off cooldown, I stunned him with ‘Lesser Holy Shock’. More importantly, I finally had the opening I needed.
I hit him first with ‘Ligament Rip’ to slow him down and increase the damage he was taking. Then I hit him with ‘Impale’ to add another bleed. Now that he was slowed down and bleeding even heavier, I took it to him. ‘Justice Strike’ to increase the magic damage of the next attack and with him stunned, I finally had time to use ‘Holy Smite’ dealing a -471-HP, which if I’m honest was still kind of low. Especially when I followed that up with ‘Power Thrust’ which dealt -502-HP damage and it didn’t take 2-seconds to cast. Okay, so my spear attack speed was 1.80-seconds but faster was faster and more damage was more damage. I didn’t have time to reflect on my poor choice of attacks, instead, I tried to chain together as many ‘Power Thrust’ attacks as I could until I finally heard the clang of my spear hitting his shield and it was back to dodging.
I added another stack of ‘Beginner Holy Fire’ when I could. Then I added the newly available 4th stack 10-seconds later. The fourth stack was added when the spell ranked up. Anyway, he was bleeding out almost -500-HP per second and suffering another -700-HP in fire damage per second and yet he still wouldn’t go down.
“Why won’t you die?” I complained, only for him to swing at me and fall on his face. His SP finally exhausted, his HP steadily draining. And yet I was curious how much HP this player had. Was there a racial bonus to his Endurance I didn’t know about? Either way, it was time to finish him off.
When he finally vanished from the battlefield, I looked up. It was all still chaos though it appeared our forces finally had the upper hand.
“Enough!” a voice bellowed from the entrance to the brewery. The
Chapter 25
The Captain was large for a Dwarf. The skin that was visible seemed a shade darker than the other Shale Dwarves. He had a massive maul that was as tall as he was with a head the size of his entire upper body. It looked kind of ridiculous, to be honest. I might have laughed if not for the black void that made up his eyes. A swirling maelstrom of malevolent energy seemed to emanate from him. And I felt something familiar in that energy. It was Chaos. As I studied him, the nameplate changed to
“Oh, that can’t be good,” I grumbled, looking around to see who was left on my side and how many enemies remained on the battlefield.
“Enough,” he repeated, slamming his maul into the ground, a massive shockwave of energy bursting free from the epicenter, knocking everyone on the battlefield to the ground, killing players and Anvilton Dwarves alike. There was no discrimination in that attack.
Even I was pushed back after stabbing my spear into the ground in an effort to hold myself in place.
When the wave finally passed, the Captain spoke again, this time to a hushed audience. “None of you are worthy of the Duke. It is my duty to kill you all!” he stated loudly. “I, Captain Thibaut, in the name of Duke Shrove du Anvil, hereby declare everyone on this battlefield an enemy of Anvilton.”
I was stunned when all the Anvilton soldiers lost the ‘Anvilton’ in their nameplates, it being replaced with ‘Outcast’. Did he really just declare his own people enemies? What about the players that remained?
I looked again, there were no players left on the Anvilton side. Was that the trigger then? As soon as the last Anvilton aligned player died, the Captain emerged? Every player I saw had the gold strip of cloth wrapped around their arm. I don’t remember if there were any Anvilton players left before the Captain’s attack, but it was a fair conclusion. It also meant we had about two-dozen new allies in this fight . . . hopefully
“Stun him in his backswing,” Rose’s voice called loudly as she marched forward, ignoring the former Anvilton soldiers. “Healer’s get everyone topped off if you can, even the other soldiers. Tanks, be ready to swap if he’s got any kind of debuff. Damage dealers, start out slow, make sure the tanks have aggro. I got first!” She then blurred from view only to reappear in front of the Captain, her shoulder impacting him and being stopped cold.
I moved quickly, hitting him with ‘Lesser Holy Shock’ stunning the boss. He only froze for a second, but it was enough time for Rose to interlock her shields in preparation for the incoming blow.
Thibaut swung the maul and hit Rose’s shield-wall. Thankfully, there was no shockwave this time. I just hoped there was a long cooldown timer. Still, the hit wiped out half of Rose’s health. Thankfully we had more healers than just Baby and Rose was quickly topped off again. I also added my ‘Beginner Holy Barrier’ and ‘Beginner Combat Blessing’ to give her a boost to her defenses and stats. It would be minimal compared to the damage Thibaut seemed to be able to put out, but every little bit helped.
Thibaut started pulling back the massive maul for another attack, but it was slow moving. That was a good thing for us. That meant he had a long time between attacks. I was just worried about what other attacks he might have.
Seeing as Rose would be fine for the moment and everyone else was charging in to help her, I took a different path. I went for the closest Dwarf I could find.
“You,” I said, pointing to an
“I need information,” I said, moving closer and kneeling down to look him in the face, but there was no answer forthcoming. “Please, help us,” I tried, hoping he would hear me, but once again, unresponsive.
“Okay, you’re checked out but still conscious and I doubt any of the other soldiers are any better off,” I said to myself. The Lieutenant was the highest-level Anvilton Dwarf on the field aside from the Captain. There must to be a way to reach him. I started looking through my spell and skill list. ‘Influence’ was a passive increase to my Charisma stat but didn’t seem to give me enough of a boost to reach this guy. I didn’t see any kind of debuff on him, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t one. So, I tried ‘Holy Cleanse’ just to be safe, but again no effect. ‘Beginner Mental Fortification’ boosted resistance to Fear and Mind Control effects so I tried that next, but still nothing happened. I even tried slapping him, hoping the shock of pain might snap him out of it.
“Think, Bye-bye, think,” I mumbled to myself, glancing back at the battle just in time to see the massive maul and the Dwarf holding it started spinning like a top, hitting anyone in range and knocking them backward. I saw several melee fighters die in an instant, their bodies hitting the ground and lying still, there only hope was for the fight to end fast enough for a healer to resurrect them before they were sent to the graveyard to respawn.
Looking back at the Dwarf, I tried one more thing. Channeling mana into my throat, I spoke. “Lieutenant, I order you to respond.”
As if the spell had been broken the Dwarf blinked, then looked up at me, tears filling his eyes. “Thank you, Captain. My men and I will serve you till the day we die.”
All around the battlefield, the Anvilton Dwarves started snapping out of it.
“Great, but right now I need information on your former Captain before he kills us all,” I said hurriedly.
“Right, the Capt-” he stopped abruptly. “Thibaut is one of the Duke’s chosen. He is a dark one, that Dwarf. Obviously, he has his maul, most of his skills are for it. But be w
ary, his voice has been blessed with ‘Discord’. If he uses it, we will become confused, start attacking each other and ourselves.”
“Is there a wind-up?” I asked.
“Yes, his chest bulges large as he begins to suck in the mana from the air. When he looks up, that will be your only opportunity to stop it, go for the throat. Otherwise, just watch out for that maul,” the Lieutenant answered.
“Thank you, now gather your men and get them out of here,” I said, ready to get into the fight. I felt better about getting the Anvilton Dwarves to safety as well.
“No offense, Captain,” said the Dwarf. “But to hell with that. He just made us outcasts. Our families will suffer for it. We are fighting him whether you want us to or not.”
I saw a fire in his eyes, he was bound and determined to see this through. I should have argued against it, but I looked back at the fight, we seemed to have lost a few more players. “Call out anything you see, any attacks you see coming, you warn us, got it?”
The Dwarf grinned. “Sir, yes, sir!” he finished with a salute.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Lieutenant Loic, sir,” he answered.
“Alright, Lieutenant. If you have any healers, get them to work. My people are getting pummeled and can use all the help they can get,” I said, rebuffing myself and hitting a few others. Then I added my ‘Edda of Light and Dark’, a spell I had not been using much simply because the cost had become ridiculously high.
Edda of Light and Dark
Level: 55
Experience: 13.43%
Spell Duration: 10 minutes
Spell Cast Speed: Instant
Spell Mana Cost: 1,575
Spell Effect (Active): Your next attack will slow your target attack speed 3.75% and increase your attack speed 3.75%. (Stackable x10) (Personal use only).
With half my mana gone in that one cast, I downed a potion and ran into the fight. As soon as I was in range, I leaped ahead, stabbing Thibaut in the shoulder as he was starting his swing, piercing the small gap in his armor, miraculously his aiming was off and the swing of the hammer was too slow, allowing Rose to get out of its path.
The Mountain Valley War Page 43