Jandar raised his buckler as he ran out of the volley’s path while Nyx danced around them as they thudded into the ground. Saefa tried to run clear, but he did not have a shield, and one shaft caught him in the shoulder. The archers had time for one more volley before the footmen reached them, and they drew their bows back once more.
A shrill horn cry cut through the air and echoed off the chasm’s walls. The archers relaxed their draw, and they and the other Caprian warriors spun to face the clarion call. Half a dozen people riding on the backs of sand striders, the bipedal lizards favored by Caprian nomads, raced toward them with another six riderless reptiles following just behind.
The attacking Caprian’s were not sure what to make of the newcomers until one of the riders blew three quick notes on his horn and the riderless striders raced ahead, their heads lowered, and their eyes locked onto the archers with a hungry look.
The archers pulled back and loosed their arrows, but it was a hasty, uncoordinated attack. Most of the shafts came nowhere near hitting their targets, and the fleet-footed sand striders had no trouble bolting out of their path. The pony-sized lizards slowed their charge just before leaping the final twenty feet and crashing atop the hapless archers.
The footmen who had charged ahead ran back in an attempt to save their fellows, but no one was under the illusion they would get there in time or have a chance at surviving the battle if they did. The lizards savaged the lightly armored archers in seconds, snapping them up in their powerful jaws and whipping them around like a dog with a rat before flinging them away and snatching up another.
The infantrymen reached the massacre and tried to fight the beasts, but the lizard riders had arrived to support them, and the battle reached its foregone conclusion before Jandar and the others could even lend a hand, not that they had put much haste in their steps.
When they reached the newcomers, they had seven men, who had thrown down their weapons and were begging for mercy, surrounded. Some of the sand striders took an occasional, half-hearted snap at the prisoners but were otherwise restrained.
Saefa beamed as he raised his bloodied arm and waved. “Naidu! I feared something ill had befallen you.”
A tall, slender man dressed in garb similar to Saefa’s slid off the back of his sand strider and embraced him. “No. I am sorry to have left you to the adventurers, but we do not wish a quarrel with them. These imperialist dogs however…” he spit in their direction. “I am very pleased to see you were able to acquit yourself well in battle against Matrice’s favored.”
Saefa smiled and looked over his shoulder at Jandar and Nyx. “I was fortunate to have more powerful chosen ones than them.”
“Oh, sure, give all the credit to the favored ones,” Lexon called out from where he stood; looking ready to bolt for the rocks should the sand striders decide they were still hungry. “It’s not as if I didn’t save your lives in both battles. I guess I was just back here stroking me instrument and playing me harp.”
Nyx looked from Lexon to Jandar. “How the hell did he hear that from all the way back there?”
“I got exceptional hearing,” Lexon shouted. “Me mum used to say I had ears like a bat. Weren’t a compliment though on account she also said I had a face to match.”
“Who is that?” Naidu asked.
“A strange fellow we met on the trail.”
“I heard that,” Lexon called out.
“But surprisingly capable,” Saefa said with a grin.
“Thank you!”
Naidu gestured to the sand striders. “Come, friends, we brought extra mounts and must be away from this place. Our friends and families do not have time to wait.”
Nyx gave the big lizards a skeptical look. “I’ve never ridden one of those.”
“I’ve never ridden anything,” Jandar added.
Naidu waved off their concerns. “It is not a problem. The striders are well trained and will follow the others and take commands from my horn. You need only hold on.”
“If you say so.” Nyx looked back to Lexon who was now standing over the slain Caprian horsemen with his arms full of plunder. “Lexon, let’s go!”
The bard looked from the waiting group and back to his haul several times before dropping the stack of swords, lances, and other salvage and jogging over. He made a wide circuit around one of the sand striders and cautiously approached it from the rear. The beast snaked its head back and snapped at him, either sensing his trepidation or was unappreciative of the strider skin chest armor he wore. Lexon instinctively cried out and fell onto his back.
Naidu barked something in Caprian and smacked the lizard on the snout with a small rod. “You must never show fear around them. They can smell it.”
“I’m bettin’ they’re smelling a bit more than fear right about now,” he said as he got back to his feet.
They climbed into the U-shaped saddles and found that the high backs and fronts made for a secure seat, cupping them on two sides.
Saefa looked back at the Caprian soldiers they left behind. “If we leave them, they could report what happened here.”
Naidu nodded. “I know.”
He raised the ram’s horn to his lips and blew a short, long, and then short note. The moment he sounded the third note, the desert striders lacking riders broke from the pack and raced back toward the defenseless men. Saefa kept his eyes looking straight ahead as their terrified screams reached his ears.
Chapter 14: Viper Pit
RIDING LIZARDBACK WAS A strange yet thrilling experience. Their long, swift strides made it feel as if they were gliding over the desert. The beasts were seemingly tireless, devouring mile after mile without slowing their loping stride. Jandar was not a military man, but he shuddered at the thought of an army riding atop the creatures, able to deploy almost anywhere on the continent in a matter of days or weeks.
He opened the latest combat log messages demanding attention.
You earned 4,800 experience points from your last battle. (3200 + 75% pain level + 0% challenge rating.)
You have learned the skill Two-Handed bludgeoning, Level 1 Grade 3. You a gain 1.3% attack bonus when using two-handed bludgeoning weapons. +25% bonus when wielding 2-handed hammers (Hammer specialization)
You have learned the skill Heavy Armor, Level 0 Grade 3. Improves armor rating and encumbrance penalties by 0.3%.
Available Advanced Combat Skills:
Cost: 1 skill point each.
Unseat, Tier 1: Knock a mounted enemy from their mount. Chances of dismounting an enemy improved by your 2-handed bludgeoning skill + Strength. Cost: 25 Stamina. Cooldown: 20 Seconds. Requirements: 2-handed weapon.
Sunder, Tier 1: Apply 75% of total damage to armor or weapon. Increased chance of destroying the stricken item. Item destroyed when durability reaches 0. Cost: 30 Stamina. Cooldown: 45 seconds. Requirements: 2-handed weapon.
Berserker’s Last Stand: Every hit for the next 30 seconds is a power attack. +25% damage for every ally disabled or killed during the encounter. Cost: 50 Stamina (stamina is consumed after the effect wears off.) Cooldown: 1 minute. Requirements: 2-handed weapon. Must be below 25% health.
New skills available at level 10.
The sunder ability looked quite useful, especially if he ever faced a well-armored opponent, but he wanted to save his skill points until he saw what spells and skills reaching level 10 brought him. He looked over at Nyx and found her turning her head to look between him and in their direction of travel.
It appeared she was intent on making good on her promise to find out what he was hiding. Jandar faced forward and focused on the path ahead since there was nothing he could do about it.
Nyx had gained 3,000 experience points from the Caprian attack. Although none of her skills had increased, it did put her within striking distance of reaching the next level. She had lost out on close to 1,000 XP due to her pain settings. So far, taking up this quest had been profitable in XP and gear. She did have some concern about possible retribution from ki
lling the other players, but she shrugged it off.
They had to start over with noob toons, and any guild they might belong to was as new as they were and would not have much power—yet. Grudges would run deep in a permadeath game, and she would have to watch her back, which she always did anyway. Choosing an assassin class was bound to create its fair share of enemies.
For now, Nyx focused her attention on Jansen as much as she could. All analyze skills took time and experience to provide more than basic information. The more she observed a target’s actions and words the more information her skill provided. The time it took to find out what she wanted to know depended on her skill, spell, and the level difference between her and the person she analyzed.
Her Pierce the Veil spell drained mana at a rapid rate, and she was not going to deplete her mana pool and leave herself vulnerable just to find out Jandar’s class, level, skills, and real name; assuming he was using an alias. Discovering a person’s, particularly a player’s, real name was the most guarded secret they had and would take the longest to discover.
Nyx knew Jansen was about the same level as her and had so far gotten the particulars of most of his skills, some of which were unusual, but little else. She should have gotten more by now, his secondary class at the very least. That should have been one of the first things she discovered, but it remained a mystery.
She even knew he was closing whatever gap lay between their levels. He had probably gotten a good boost with that crazy pointblank area of effect, or PBAOE as it was called, and hit five of the six horsemen. Still, there was something else going on with him. Many things about Jansen did not add up, but she was determined to get to the bottom of it.
The moon was full, and the sand striders appeared to have excellent night vision, so they pressed on for several hours after the sun had set. Nyx’s ingame clock showed that it was nearly midnight by the time they stopped and made camp. As much as she appreciated the game’s realism, Nyx decided she could do without the saddle soreness that showed up as a debuff to agility. At least she was not alone in her misery. Jansen and Lexon both moved with a stiff, bowlegged gait.
Nyx continued to stare at Jansen as they gnawed on dry trail food. Firelight was visible for miles, and it took hours to make a stew, so they made a cold camp and ate jerky, nuts, and hardtack. Now that they had made camp and had yet run across anything or anyone willing to attack the large group and their flesh-eating mounts, Nyx did not bother to ration her mana.
She studied Jansen intently as she robotically chewed her food. A prompt appeared a few minutes later and Nyx spit half a chewed biscuit onto her boots. She leapt to her feet, grabbed Jansen by his shirtfront, and hauled him bodily away from everyone else. It was a somewhat comical sight given that Nyx’s head was even with his broad chest, but there was nothing funny about the fury in her eyes.
“What the hell is an arcane smith?” she demanded in a harsh whisper.
Jandar looked down at her. “Uh…me.”
Nyx began poking him in the chest with a slender finger. “I was a beta player for over a year, and not once did I ever see or hear of a crafting or trade skill used to determine a secondary class; not ingame or on the beta boards!”
Jandar shrugged. “Well, you met one now.”
“You also have a hammer specialization, which is impossible because you have to be at least character and skill level 20, and I know you don’t meet either of those criteria.”
“I guess it’s because I use my hammer a lot.”
“Your crafting skill does not count, and it still doesn’t explain how you got it since you’re level 9 at best even if it did.” She glared up at him. “Are you a GM or some kind of observer? Do you work for Quantum Technologies or some oversight committee? A rival corporation?”
“I don’t know who Quantum Technologies is, and I don’t work for anyone.”
Nyx stepped back and blinked at him. “How can you play a game and not know who made the damn thing?”
“I thought Edison made it.”
“Well…yeah, but…you know what I mean, unless you think he created and runs an entire world out of his basement!” She cocked her head. “Is this your first MMORPG? How old are you?”
Jandar gave her a blank stare and replied with the only answer he had. “I’m twenty-six.”
Nyx recognized his deer in the headlights expression when she said MMORPG. There was no way he could not know what that meant even if he was a complete noob. He had to be screwing with her again…didn’t he?”
“I can’t take your bullshit anymore today,” Nyx said when it became apparent he was not going to volunteer more information. “I hope when we log back on you’ll have decided to stop being such an asshole.”
Nyx threw her helmet onto the bed and plunked down into the gaming chair by her computer. She coded a quick web crawler to search the internet for references to arcane smith and Jansen with a priority order limiting the search results by QT, MMORPG, VRMMORPG, Quantum Technologies, Automated Global Gaming Resources Online, and Global Online Development. Results began pouring in through her ten-gigabit internet connection, but after an hour of reading, her crawler had not yielded any useful information. Something was rotten in the state of Mortalia.
Riccon drew back his bow and loosed an arrow. The shaft sped across the fifty yards of open ground and thudded into the small target, knocking it from the man’s shaking grasp. He and his party had gone into the tomb on a few occasions to relieve the boredom of sitting around camp all day while Khan Eoselm’s slaves, or conscripts as he called them, cleared out the trash mobs.
They had all agreed it was best not to gamble their lives on lesser creatures even if the risk was somewhat small. The world had become far less forgiving, and there were no longer any second chances, not unless you managed to get your hands on an eternity stone. He sent another arrow into the target, missing the hand picking it up by inches; he would get that stone.
Ben, now named Darvin Sepret, walked up behind him. “Why do you make them hold the target? Isn’t it a bit sadistic?”
Riccon rolled his eyes; he did that a lot with Ben. “They’re not people. How many times do I have to say it?”
Darvin looked back at the camp. There were almost a hundred people—NPCs—kept in a paddock like livestock and guarded by a handful of the khan’s soldiers. There were at least a score more down in the tomb clearing out the trash mobs. Like twice as many before them, most would never again see the light of day.
“It just seems needlessly cruel,” Darvin said.
“It’s not needless at all. Having a person hold the target helps my precision training. As an archer, I often have to target enemies in close combat with my party members, and this method improves my skill faster than using a static target. Unless you want me to shoot you in the ass while you’re tanking.”
A heavy hand dropped onto Darvin’s shoulder. “It wouldn’t be the first time Darvin took a shaft in the ass I’m betting!”
Darvin rolled his eyes at the simian berserker named Bonin the Bonarian. Riccon was not the only one who thought he was too soft and felt the need to mock him for it. Darvin knew he was being overly sentimental about the game characters and did not get too upset by their teasing. He tried to steel his heart, but the game was just so damn real.
“What’s up, Boner?” Darvin asked.
“Pun intended?”
“Of course.”
“Nice. Anyway, what’s left of the cannon fodder is coming out of the hole. Khan Dipshit says they’ve reached the boss and we’re up.”
Riccon looked up at the sky. “Finally! We could have cleared the way two days ago if he had let us do it ourselves.”
“You want to risk getting bit by one of those poisonous snakes and dying for garbage loot?” Bonin asked. “Using garbage NPCs to clear the trash mobs was the only smart thing he’s done.”
“True,” Riccon replied. “Let’s go get the others and suit up. How many soldiers is he sending down with u
s?”
“About a dozen from the looks of it.”
“Levels?”
Bonin shrugged his broad, hairy shoulders. “About eight to twelve. Mostly the former.”
Riccon did some calculations in his head. He and Darvin were the highest levels in the group at level 15. Bonin and Shank Williams were both level 14, and their healer, Naughty Nightingale, was 13. The boss was reputed to be between level 20 to 25, which meant she would probably spawn adds about half her level. Depending on how many adds they pulled, they should have enough to kill her and get the eternity stone.
It was almost a certainty the khan and his NPC soldiers would die in the battle. It was part of the plan after all. If a couple of his party members did not survive, all the better. It would leave more loot for him and Darvin, particularly getting the eternity stone, whose possession went to the highest roller.
As party leader, Riccon considered changing the loot rules the moment before they pulled the boss so he got first pick, but that would give him a bad reputation game-wide and get him blackballed from most parties or guilds. Bonin and the others weren’t half bad players either. It was best to keep it fair, but if he could increase his odds of getting the stone without shooting himself in the foot he would.
Riccon found the felonian rogue and human healer strapping on their weapons and armor. Naughty was a caster-based healer, which made her rather squishy, but she had an enormous mana pool and potent healing spells. She would also get a basic resurrection spell once she reached character and skill level 20.
She had to live too if he wanted to maintain her services, but that meant lowering his odds of getting the eternity stone from fifty percent to thirty-three point three. It would be worth it if she became capable of semi-unlimited resurrections.
The spell was a new addition to the game just recently announced, and it required a rare item drop called a soul gem. Soul gems were described as the concentrated life energy of a defeated creature. They were leveled items based upon the strength of the creature killed, and the gem’s level had to be at least as high as the person you wanted to resurrect.
Chaos Unchained- The Mad Smith Page 23