The Mountain Valley War

by M. A. Carlson

  “Any chance she’ll cast out the Dwarves under her command as Thibaut did?” I asked.

  Loic could only shrug.

  “Great, everyone get that?” Olaf asked, but before anyone could respond, he motioned everyone forward into the grain mill. “Let’s go make some noise.”

  “Quietly!” I hissed, probably a little too loudly.

  “You know what I meant,” Olaf said.

  “Yeah, I did, but that doesn’t mean they did,” I said motioning to the circus of Dwarves and players waiting in line behind us.

  “Good point, quietly inside we go, when I signal the attack you can make as much noise as you want,” Olaf said before looking to me. “Better?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Yes, better. Now, can we go end this siege?”

  “I suppose,” said Olaf, feigning exasperation.

  “Come on already,” said Rose, actually sounding exasperated. “I want to abuse this cheat and kill another boss without having to fight all his little minions first.”

  Rather than roll my eyes again or sigh in exasperated, I just moved ahead and into the grain mill. I didn’t get a very good look at the building from the outside due to our distance, but it was actually a giant windmill, like those that had been preserved in parts of the European continent. There was a balcony that circled the top of it that Loic said was for maintenance workers but in the event of a siege, it made for a great place to shoot from.

  Inside, there was nothing to be seen except for bags of grain and two staircases, one to the left and one to the right. The room was large, probably a hundred feet across which gave the windmill a very large base. I really wished I had gotten the chance to see it. Viewing it would wait until we were done here.

  “I’ll go right,” said Olaf, moving ahead as quietly as he could, ten of the surviving players went with him, including Jay and Icyhot who I hadn’t noticed among the players that lived. I was glad to see them both, it made me feel better about Olaf’s chance of surviving this.

  “Loic, send your Archers with him,” I said.

  Loic gave a quiet nod and went toward his contingent of troops.

  I left it to him to deal with them, I had more work to do. “Vision, can you go have a look up there for us, tell me if there is a clear way up. Also, tell me where the mill workers are? If there are any soldiers guarding them? And where this Captain Mariette is? Got it?” I said, kneeling down next to the wolf I had come to really rely upon.

  Vision nodded his head once, then was off, invisible to the naked eye. I didn’t see the Scout or Thief, so either they were doing the same thing, or they died taking the brewery.

  Rose gathered up the tanks near the stairwell, ready to fight if anything came down or ready to storm up if that was the play.

  Vision reappeared a minute later. “No one is there except for the workers.”

  “No one?” I questioned him.

  Vision shook his head, not on the main floor. “I saw a dozen Archers at the top but that was it,” he replied.

  “No sign of the boss?” I asked.

  “I saw a Dwarf out the front doors, she was laughing like a crazy person and the earth outside was doing weird things,” Vision answered. “I think she might have been Captain Mariette.”

  “Vision, did you see any adventurers outside?” I asked, slightly worried she had already been triggered like Thibault was.

  Vision shook his head negatively again.

  “Rose, go, get to the witch and start interrupting her!” I shouted, not caring about being loud. If the witch was out already, that meant the Hammerton soldiers had managed to kill all the players aligned with Anvilton.

  Rather than go with her, I ran the way Olaf went, trying to catch up with him before he killed the Archers. Hopefully, I would be able to turn them to our cause.

  I found Olaf at the top of the stairs about to signal everyone to attack.

  “Wait!” I shouted, halting the attack just in time.

  It was only then Olaf saw the Archers didn’t twitch at the sound.

  “Is the boss already out?” Olaf asked, rushing ahead to the edge of the balcony.

  “Yeah, Vision spotted her,” I said, joining him a moment later.

  Olaf cursed under his breath. “Sorry, I should have sent the scouts out first.” Olaf then turned back to the players and Dwarves that accompanied him. “Alright troops, let’s give them support and start shooting the boss.”

  While Olaf started positioning his ranged unit, I went for the outcasted Archers.

  “Atten hut!” I barked, using my ‘Order: Military Command’ one more time. And just like that, the spell was broken. “The mad Duke has betrayed you. Stand with us and fight for your people or run and leave them to die under his yoke. The choice is yours.” I didn’t think I needed to say anything after I said the mad Duke part. The Archers were already scrambling to get in position to help Olaf.

  That left me having to make the run again, back down the stairs where hopefully I would be able to join the fracas before it was all over. I had gotten to the door back inside when I froze. I had an idea. An epically stupid idea but one that might be worth trying. I ran back to the ledge and looked down where Rose and the others were fighting the witch. I smiled.

  I ran back toward the door, adding points to ‘Amped Up’ as I moved. I stopped at the door again, but this time I started sprinting back toward the edge of the balcony, when I was five feet shy of it, I leaped into the air and over the edge. As long as the witch didn’t move, my crazy idea would work fine.

  With my spear leading the way on my drop, I began to pick up speed. More interesting was the white energy that began appearing ahead of my fall. My attack lined up perfectly, the witch, Captain Mariette was right in my path. I stated loudly as I unleashed my most potent ability, “Final Judgment!”

  Captain Mariette looked up just in time for my spear to meet her face, an explosion of holy energy tore through her magical shields, if she had any, then kept going until my spear hit the ground causing a second explosion of holy energy. I had expected to do some crazy damage to her with that attack. My ‘Final Judgment’ alone should have dealt around -8,000-HP in damage. What I saw was beyond anything I imagined. -43,617-HP. I basically just one shot a boss with my crazy stunt.

  Hammerton War Effort: Siege Assistance at the Flattop Mill – Completed!

  You have been offered the mission to assist in breaking the siege of the Flattop Mill and to recapture it for Hammerton’s usage.

  Reward: +25,000-Experience, Increased reputation with Hammerton Military Structure, See Colonel Grandmite for Bonus

  Which was immediately followed with another notification.

  Congratulations! You’ve reached Level 15!

  +1 to bonus Holy Spells, +1-Intellect, +1-Charisma

  I barely had time to register the two notifications when I hit the ground. -7,455-HP. Probably fall damage. Jumping from about six stories up may not have been the best idea.

  Bye-bye Jacko Lvl 15 does 7,455-damage to himself with Holy Meteor.

  Bye-bye Jacko Lvl 15 has sacrificed himself. Combat has ended, your party has 5-minutes to resurrect you or you will automatically be transported and revived at the nearest graveyard.

  So worth it.

  Chapter 26

  Being resurrected was a strange sensation. It was like I was an empty glass and the spell was filling me up until I suddenly popped back into being. Which was less popping up out of nowhere and more like waking up suddenly as I bolted upright.

  It took me a second to orientate from being a bodiless entity without form to being me again. When I finally took in my surroundings, I saw Baby hovering a few feet away. “Thanks, Baby,” I said to my Fairy friend.

  Baby rolled her eyes. “Rose, you deal with him. There is more work to be done.”

  Why did I get the feeling I was in trouble? Didn’t I just save the day? As Baby’s form cleared from my view, I saw Rose . . . glaring at me. Yep, definitely in trouble. The question w
as why?

  “Idiot,” Rose stated, crossing her arms.

  “Yes, I am,” I agreed. It really was a stupid attack, but I had a feeling she had more reasons to call me that than just the fact it really was epically stupid and risky.

  “What were you thinking?” Rose asked.

  “I really wasn’t thinking too much,” I answered. “I just . . . I had an idea and went with it.”

  “Uh huh,” Rose replied. “You’re lucky it worked . . . you’re even more lucky I survived whatever that attack was.”

  “Did I hurt you?” I asked, quickly climbing to my feet.

  “Whatever that attack was, it released a shockwave when you hit,” Rose answered, still glaring at me.

  Was that a yes? I assumed that was a yes and replied, “I’m so sorry. Did I kill you? Or anyone for that matter?”

  “No, Baby called out a warning giving everyone time enough to get clear except me. I needed to keep the Captain in position so you would hit her,” Rose explained.

  It really didn’t sound that bad to me. She was alive, the boss was dead.

  “You did something much worse than kill me,” Rose added, making me nervous.

  What could I have possibly done that was worse than accidentally killing her or any of the other players?

  Then Rose held out two pieces of metal slag.

  “I don’t understand,” I said, looking between her and the slag.

  “Do you know what these used to be?” Rose asked, shaking the two pieces of metal. “Do you notice anything missing?”

  Uh oh. Those two pieces of slag must have been all that remained of her two shields. “I’ll replace them,” I offered.

  Rose glared. “I know they weren’t very powerful anymore, but they had sentimental value. I was hoping to keep them as a memento. But now, they are ruined,” she stated, getting steadily louder. “And the worst part, I can’t even get that upset about it because losing two shields for the chance to witness you one shot that witch was totally worth it.”

  That made me pause. So, was she angry with me or not? Or was she angry with herself? The situation? “Maybe Mardi can fix them?” I offered.

  Rose growled, her glare seeming to intensify as the red glow of her eyes brightened.

  “Okay, different approach. What can I do to help?” I asked. “Can I do something to make it up to you?” I realize I was grasping at straws here, but I needed to hope I could recover somehow.

  “Yes,” Rose stated before storming away but not telling me what I could do to make it up to her. As a result, I was even more confused.

  “Well, now that you’ve blown that, think she’d be interested in a rebound?” Pwn asked, clapping me on the shoulder.

  I was so very tempted to hit him right then . . . I really was. “Go . . . Away,” I stated each word separately.

  “And here I thought we were finally starting to bond,” Pwn poked at me, smirking. Before I could retort, he quickly retreated, that smirk still firmly in place.

  “I really hate that guy,” I grumbled.

  Now that I was alive, and the boss was dead, I glanced over at the corpse which was already missing its head and its body stripped almost bare, it would seem I missed out on the loot but at least she was most definitely dead. And Rose . . . well, I’m not quite sure what that was about. I would definitely figure it out sooner rather than later but right now, I wanted to make sure everything here was cleaned up. Anyway, I was alive, and the mill was secured, mission accomplished.

  First things first. I had system notifications pending my attention.

  You’ve learned a holy skill-spell ‘Holy Meteor’

  Holy Meteor

  Level: 1

  Experience: 0.00%

  Skill Effect: Falling from the heavens, you pierce the World with your divine might multiplying your damage by an order of magnitude based on height dealing an additional -1-HP damage per point of MP and SP used per 15-feet. Ignores armor, cannot be blocked or dodged. Damage in excess of targets remaining health will explode, spreading any remaining damage equally to all targets within 100-feet.

  Skill Stamina Cost: All Spell Mana Cost: All

  That explained how I did 43K damage. I fell about 60-feet which means my damage was multiplied four times. The roughly -8,000-HP I should have done was multiplied to almost 36K. I’m not sure where the other -7,000-HP came from but there was probably something I wasn’t taking into account. Either way, that was a very over-powered skill, if only using it wouldn’t result in my death.

  The other part of that skill was that I could use it as an area of effect, hitting an area rather than a single target, thus dealing equal damage to several targets instead of just one target and some splash damage. Splash damage was an interesting thing in this game as it often meant the spell or skill could damage a friend as easily as a foe.

  I checked the next notification.

  You’ve learned ‘Body Control’ subskill ‘Jump’

  Body Control

  Level: 95

  Experience: 64.12%

  Subskill: Jump

  Jump Height Boost: Increase your maximum jump height by 11.7-feet per boost

  Skill Stamina Cost: 100 per boost

  Okay, interesting and useful, assuming I could find a way to land that wouldn’t include my death from falling. It was just one more thing to research.

  Second, I needed to look for Olaf.

  I asked some of the other players and they directed me to the Hammerton front lines a few hundred yards away from the mill. The land between them was an absolute mess. There were both Bronze and Shale Dwarven corpses strewn about haphazardly. Based on the size of the craters I imagined there were even more bodies under the upturned earth. This battle appeared to have been brutal. Far too many had died for this one resource.

  When I arrived, the Hammerton forces looked to be in rough shape, whatever healers there were among the adventures were working hard to heal as many Dwarves as they could. There didn’t seem to be any non-healer players around though. I also couldn’t help but notice Bushy wasn’t around again either. Did she not make it back in time for the battle? Or did she not bother even trying?

  I finally found Olaf talking to a Hammerton Captain. I managed to catch Olaf’s attention as I approached. He shared a few more words and a salute with the Captain before walking to meet me.

  “You are far and away the craziest person I’ve ever met,” Olaf said in greeting, not holding back on a silly grin at all.

  I shrugged.

  “Anyway, Rose let you have it already?” Olaf asked.

  “Yeah, I’ll need to find some way to make it up to her,” I said, scratching at the back of my head.

  “You’ll figure it out,” Olaf said.

  “So, what did I miss while I was dead?” I asked.

  “Not much, came here right away to talk to the Captain. He’s getting his troops packed up and heading for Hammerton as soon as his men are fighting capable,” Olaf answered. “Hopefully the adventurers haven’t gotten overzealous and started looting the boss yet.”

  I winced. “Yeah, she was pretty much stripped bare by the time I was revived.”

  “Vultures,” Olaf grumbled. “I suppose then we should just collect our friends and head back to Hammerton.”

  “Speaking of friends, have you seen Bushy?” I asked, looking around again.

  “Come to think of it, no, I haven’t,” Olaf answered. “Maybe she got caught up on the way back. I’m sure she’ll catch up with us back in Hammerton.”

  “Yeah, I suppose,” I replied. Olaf made sense but I had a feeling that something else was going on. I didn’t particularly care for this feeling.

  The trip back to Hammerton was made mostly in silence on my part. Rose was still quite tetchy towards me, walking a good twenty feet away and choosing instead to accompany Baby back. Meanwhile, Olaf was focused on trying to get everyone back to Hammerton, something that was more difficult as night really began to settle in.

 
As soon as we reached the gates, Olaf spoke. “Alright, good job everyone, we’re reporting to Colonel Grandmite first, after that, I think we’re done for the day. Come back early tomorrow and we’ll figure out our next objective.”

  Colonel Grandmite looked as dour as always though her words didn’t match. “Congratulations on a job well done. Though I was not expecting you to conquer both objectives in a single evening. As a bonus for resolving both issues so quickly, please collect all vouchers for the adventurers from Captain Lucila, she works closely with the quartermaster and can usually be found in his company. As to the purpose of the vouchers, they can be exchanged with any of the crafters in Hammerton for one small piece of armor. Three can be exchanged for a large piece of armor. Five for a weapon and ten for an accessory. Charms are also available, but they start at fifty vouchers and go up from there. Higher quality armor will obviously require more vouchers. And finally, you can also exchange the vouchers with any of the Sergeants for additional training, you will need to talk to each Sergeant for his or her prices as well as a list of any skills they are willing to teach.”

  Now that was really interesting. Hammerton was offering vouchers, similar to the Sigils I received from Goddess Issara, that could be exchanged for equipment or training.

  “I will have new assignments available tomorrow. For now, celebrate your victories, they are well earned,” Colonel Grandmite finished, giving us a quick salute and leaving before anyone had a chance to return said salute.

  “Alright, you heard her,” Olaf shouted over the noise. “Collect your vouchers from Captain Lucila and enjoy the rest of your evenings.”

  After everything was settled and not needing to be told twice the room emptied quickly, all the various players chatting animatedly as they departed.

  I tried to talk to Rose, but she had apparently already departed along with Baby. Sighing tiredly, I was about to head back to the Duchess’s when Olaf clapped me on the shoulder.