The Dragon's Revenge

by Conor Kostick

  ‘Incoming, resistance buffs,’ said Tuscl.

  And with our minds back on the game, we dropped the speculation about Yuno and the real owners of Epic 2.

  Another two hours saw us clear the tower up to the ‘Keep Out’ sign. And then we did all four floors again. This was where gaming became a chore. You discover a location that spawns worthwhile mobs for your level and you just fight the same battles over and over. It was tedious. Yet I’d done even more boring grinds while playing Epic and here at least I had my friends to chat with.

  At last, when we were all feeling tired and hungry, I called an end to it. Tuscl had just made level 24 and gained some attribute buff spells, so even though there were a few mobs left on the third floor, it was a good place to stop. We ran downstairs and dumped the junk finds on the merchant, then unclipped at the entrance to the tower. As I did so, I had a final look at the group box on my UI with some satisfaction. We were on schedule.

  Group Leader: Klytotoxos, half-elf, hunter, Level 19

  Raithahalf-elfhunterLevel 19

  Sapentiahuman sorceress Level 21

  Grythiss lizardmandark knight Level 20

  Brajahuman cleric Level 18

  Tusclhuman shaman Level 24

  Chapter 25

  Another Day, Another Grind

  Shortly after six the next morning, we were all back in the necromancer’s tower and ready to go. This time, after clearing the bottom four floors in just ninety minutes (and all gaining a level apart from Tuscl) we stood at the staircase with, ‘Keep Out’ written on both walls. At the top of the stairs was a barricade of wooden furniture.

  ‘Dark elves next then,’ said Braja. ‘I hate them. Too many casters.’

  ‘I hate Dark Yhandisss.’

  ‘Somehow, Grythiss, we are familiar with this piece of information.’ Raitha gave our tank an affectionate pat on the back.

  ‘How do we go through?’ asked Sapentia.

  I shrugged. ‘Shall I just walk up and drag it apart?’

  ‘And trigger traps?’ She shook her head.

  ‘What then?’

  ‘Lightning?’

  There was a silence as we all thought about this. ‘All right?’ I looked around, nobody objected, even if they did take a step or two backwards.

  ‘Let’s estand around the corner.’ Tuscl implemented her own suggestion and the others, apart from Sapentia and me, joined her.

  ‘Here goes.’ Sapentia took a position out of direct line of the staircase and aiming her fingers upwards, began to chant. A few seconds later, with a loud clap of thunder, a vivid electric bolt flashed up the stairs, crackling like a drumroll as it bounced back and forth from side to side and off the stairs and roof too. After hitting the barricade the bolt streaked back towards us and without thinking I stepped in its path.

  Whomp. A brilliant, dazzling whiteout and a feeling I was made of pure energy.

  You have been hit by a Lightning Strike for 0 damage.

  My hair had risen, I knew that from the tingling sensation all up the back of my head. Everywhere was the smell of gunpowder (I hadn’t experienced anything like it since a boy in my class, Adam Rahilly, blew himself up one bonfire night trying to make a genie). And my lovely pirate captain’s shirt had a big black stain on the front.

  ‘What did you do that for?’ asked Raitha, with genuine curiosity.

  ‘Wasn’t spent. Could have gone anywhere. I knew I was immune…’ It took me a moment to be able to gather my thoughts properly. Then I laughed. ‘I tell you what though. It’s some craic. You should try it if you ever get the chance.’

  Business-like, as though there had never been any danger to our group, Sapentia ignored me and examined the stairs. Carpet had been fried away to the stone beneath in several places; the walls of the corridor were blackened (with the warnings now barely legible); bits and pieces of scorched wood were strewn on every step, some planks were large enough to cross the width of the stairwell; and there was a big hole in the barricade.

  Our wizard, looking pleased with herself, pointed to the mess. ‘Up you go.’

  There wasn’t much point being stealthy after that explosion, so I ran up the stairs, four at a time, and found myself in a long corridor. My intuition was that it stretched almost the entire length of the tower. It was featureless, in the main, apart from brackets for unlit torches on the outer wall.

  ‘Hello?’ I said, not loudly. ‘Anyone here?’

  When no one answered I took two steps into the corridor and a blade to my spine.

  You have been stabbed in the back by a short sword for 0 damage.

  ‘I am here!’ a dark elf whispered triumphantly.

  ‘So you are.’ I turned around and enjoyed the look of consternation on his purple face.

  [Group] ‘Incoming, a dark elf rogue…or maybe assassin.’

  In the moment it took for my enemy to recover from his shock, I skipped past him and down the stairs. Enraged now, he hurried after me, only to pause when he saw the group waiting for him at the bottom.

  [Group] ‘Quick, someone tag him. Don’t let him run.’

  Tuscl waved her arms. [Group] ‘Eslowed.’ That would help but Slow affected combat speed rather than running speed. And as far as the dark elf was concerned, the spell made up his mind. He was off, running away into the darkness.

  ‘After him!’ I cried and sprang back up the stairs. My base speed was probably quicker than that of the rogue and with Tuscl’s buff I was faster still. Even so, we were both nearly at the far corner before I was able to grab him.

  You have learned the skill Grapple (1).

  ‘Get off me, half-breed!’ With rage in his eyes and a thick-bladed dagger in his far hand, my opponent stabbed me rapidly three times in the ribs. Not at all bad for someone under the effects of a Slow spell.

  You have been hit by a dagger for 0 damage.

  You have been hit by a dagger for 0 damage.

  You have been hit by a dagger for 0 damage.

  ‘Racist,’ I replied and hung on tight until Grythiss came up and gave the dark elf a massive cleave with the longsword that had been magically enhanced by Nemain. That got my opponent’s attention and as he turned, I leapt at his neck.

  Critical Hit! You have bitten a dark elf assassin for 45 points of damage. You are draining his blood.

  Excellent. And not only would this successful bite help the battle, it would keep my thirst for blood in check for a while too. Without too much trouble - Braja’s heals easily kept Grythiss ahead of the damage - we hammered away at the dark elf until Sapentia finished him off with a flurry of nukes.

  The dark elf assassin is dead. You gain experience.

  Good experience too, about 10 per cent of my exp bar.

  From where she had been kneeling by the body, Tuscl straightened up. ‘There is a Fastened medallion.’

  ‘Stats?’ I asked.

  ‘None; is the Vengeance quest.’

  So it was. We needed to hand in thirty of these. ‘Go ahead, you collect them.’

  With all the racket we’d made, especially the booming sounds of Sapentia’s spells, which had reverberated along the corridor, I was surprised the place was so quiet. Where were the reinforcements?

  ‘I’ll go on.’

  Around the corner, I found exactly the same sight: a very long black corridor, stretching for the fifty metres or so of the tower, featureless other than the unlit torches. Sauntering along, I ran the fingertips of my right hand against the inner wall. Just in case. No secret door though.

  [Group] ‘Move up please.’ I didn’t want to turn the next corner and be a whole corridor ahead of my team. Once I could see Raitha - the first of the group to step around - I waved. He didn’t wave back. It must have been too dark for him. ‘That will do.’

  As I turned the next corner, the flagstone beneath my right foot sank a little as I put my weight on it. Leaping back with my heart beating fast, it seemed as though I had escaped the trap. A pit?

  [Group] ‘There�
��s some sort of…oh.’ All the torches in the brackets flared and the corridor was full of orange and yellow colour, as well as flickering shadows. I turned and ran back to my friends.

  ‘Should we go back?’ asked Raitha.

  ‘We should.’

  The moment we turned the corner, however, we saw our route back to the stairs was blocked by a troop of some eight dark elves, marching determinedly towards us.

  ‘Should we go on?’ asked Raitha, with amusement in his voice, despite the danger.

  ‘I believe we should.’

  Hurrying forward, we made it halfway along the corridor, more or less to the point that the group had been standing at when I triggered the trap, when the distinct tramp of another band of enemies came from ahead of us.

  ‘Wait.’ We were going to be caught between two impossibly difficult groups of mobs and I couldn’t see a way to get the aggro of both. ‘Suggestions?’

  ‘Time to die bravely.’ Grythiss raised his sword in a kind of salute that nearly brought the tip to the roof.

  ‘All right, try to die as close to the stairs as you can, I’ll hold off this far group.’

  ‘For Nemainss’s glory!’ shouted our tank and charged around the corner. Then Braja, Tuscl and Raitha followed, weapons drawn. Sapentia, however, was casting and I caught her eye. She was able to give me a rueful shrug without losing the spell.

  Around the far corner came the new group of eight dark elves, led by a commander with a wicked-looking, long-bladed spear. Boom! An explosion of fire engulfed them and the roils of heat, distorting the air around me, rushed through the corridor leaving me blinking away a red blur and shaking my head to rid of a ringing sound.

  You have been hit by a Fireball for 0 damage.

  Nearby, Sapentia picked herself up, her clothing still smouldering and ran. ‘Good luck.’

  ‘Ah,’ I said to their battered-looking commander. ‘I think there might be a misunderstanding here. I come with a message…’ The dark elf jabbed me in the stomach with his spear.

  You have been hit by a glaive for 63 damage.

  Oh.

  Leaping past the officer, I took several more hits, all for zero damage, before I was clear and running away up the unexplored corridor. A flicker on my UI showed me that Grythiss had died, he was greyed out. A second later, however, he was green again, presumably having respawned downstairs. In quick succession the same grey-green switch happened to Raitha, Braja, Sapentia and Tuscl.

  With a skip I avoided the trapped sinking stone at the corner (it probably didn’t matter at this point) and turned down an empty corridor. When I was about a third of the way along, my eight pursuers came into view behind me. The final corridor was empty of mobs. It wasn’t quite the same as the other three. At the far end, there was a section of wall that seemed to have been moved to create an opening. And just before that, on the interior wall, was a black rectangle that resolved itself as a stairwell going up as I got closer to it. Should I go up?

  [Group] ‘Well, Captain Tyro, what’s the plan?’ asked Braja.

  [Group] ‘Sec.’ With barely a glance, I decided to go through the gap at the end of the corridor (past the false, sliding wall) and turned the corner to where the eight dark elves were standing motionless, spread out along the corridor, beside the bodies of my friends.

  It was easy enough to run past them, receiving a few knocks as I did so, but no damage. Now I had sixteen dark elves chasing me.

  [Group] ‘Come up as far as the stairs?’ I suggested.

  [Group] ‘Unfortunately, there is a full respawn down here,’ replied Raitha, ‘I don’t think we can clear it without you to pull, at least, not level three.’

  [Group] ‘Ahh, shame, I was hoping not to die.’ I still had a few tricks up my sleeve. During yesterday’s grind my Summon Bats had become available and it was joined this morning by Summon Rats. Evidently, they were on a twenty-four-hour timer. Plus, I could turn myself into a gas cloud. Maybe I could run the train around the tower while my pets ate my enemies? It would take ages though. Better to get myself killed and help everyone come back up. With an internal sigh, I stopped running at the end of the corridor with my comrade’s bodies. I would park the train well away from the staircase.

  [Group] ‘Should we estep outside the tower while you bring a train down?’

  [Group] ‘Oh, great idea. I was going to die, but this will be quicker and spare me the exp penalty.’

  Just as the first of my enemies caught up - and a couple of arrows hit me without damage - I set off again, this time moving at my top speed. Once back around to the staircase, I bounded down, drawing the toughest of the Dark Yhandis in my wake.

  [Group] ‘Coming down! Watch out!’

  [Group] ‘We are all safe,’ replied Raitha, ‘though for good measure we are moving around to the right-hand side of the tower as you come out. If your mobs follow you out please go straight down the hill, a little to the left.’

  [Group] ‘Got it!’ I had reached Level 1 already and just as I came to the stairs to the ground floor, I remembered something important. ‘It’s daylight, right?’

  [Group] ‘Oh blast. Sorry.’ Raitha sounded contrite.

  [Group] ‘Never mind.’

  There were so many mobs crowding around me at the top of the stairs that they were all something of a blur. My combat reports were streaming through that section of my UI so fast that I felt the word count would surpass that of War of Peace in a matter of minutes.

  ‘Coming through, coming through. Where’s that guy with the spear?’ I did my best to push into the mobs and make my way towards the back, where, from the sight of his glaive waving around in the air, I could just make out the dark elf commander who was able to damage me. ‘Come on! Back up a bit and you’ll get what you want. A dead pirate captain.’ It was hopeless though; the press was too intense in every direction.

  [Group] ‘Hah, I can’t even die. I’m a bit stuck here, on the first floor near the stairs. Do you think you can clear the ground floor without me?’

  [Group] ‘Yesss. Death to the Black Yhandisss.’

  Soon I was listening to my reformed group as they went back into action. And feeling that it probably wouldn’t be too much of a waste, I summoned a swarm of bats. Would they arrive in this tower at all? They would, dozens of them, swirling around above the battle. In fact…although it was tricky to target him, eventually I got a good visual on the glaive-wielding commander and ordered my bats to attack. Then I bit into the wrist of the Black Yhandis immediately in front of me. After several successful bites and even more misses, I struck blood.

  Critical Hit! You have bitten a Black Yhandis wizard for 49 points of damage. You are draining his blood.

  Now the situation was interesting, amusing even. Normally, when you mess up your crowd control, death follows very quickly. Here I was, in the middle of a thick bunch of mobs and having the upper hand. At least until the guy with the glaive could get at me. Meanwhile, I was gaining experience from the efforts of my group below on the ground floor.

  After about ten minutes of this, two developments changed the pattern. My target, the wizard, died and almost at the same time, Raitha said, [Group] ‘We are done here. I suggest we try to pull one of yours away.’

  [Group] ‘Be my guest. I don’t suppose you can target the one with the glaive and the bats around him?’

  [Group] ‘You suppose correctly.’

  [Group] ‘Oh well. Help yourself to whatever you can then.’

  [Group] ‘Incoming, a dark elf cleric.’

  We were back in a grind, the wild confusion of the chase having settled down. I did wonder whether I should worry about the commander. As the mobs thinned out, he’d be able to start hitting me again. Long before that became an issue, however, my bats had solved the problem.

  The dark elf warrior is dead. You gain experience.

  I reassigned the bats to a new target and kept trying a bite attack on the nearest mob, until I was fastened on and bleeding him to death. Th
is was a challenge no longer.

  It took about thirty minutes to kill all the mobs and the resulting exp was excellent. After the huge train had been derailed, I was level 20 (hurray, I could equip my self-Haste buff Swift as a Panther, which gave me a slight increase over Tuscl’s group buff. Unfortunately, they didn’t stack) and I was nearly 21. Raitha the same, of course. Sapentia was 22, Grythiss 21, Braja 20 and Tuscl 25. The loot from the dark elves was helpful too: Setharian plate (+1, +3 at night) for various slots, which went to Grythiss first and then to Braja. We also obtained six more medallions for the Vengeance is Best Served quest. Then, on the commander was a magical glaive, +1 versus undead. Aha. There was the source of my injuries (which had entirely regenerated). Weapons - and presumably spells - that were targeted against the undead were dangerous to me. Just as well I wasn’t fighting good races and encountering paladins and clerics with a strong repertoire of attacks against the undead.

  We now had four levels of Black Yhandis and two levels of dark elves for our grind. That was plenty; so long as the ground floor mobs gave us experience it was worth including them in the cycle. And now that we knew about the secret wall on the fifth floor, we could bypass the corridor trap and (the group having first killed the assassin on guard duty) I could pull directly from the sixth floor, which had an unusual layout. It was like a large, open plan office, with a dozen dry swimming pools evenly distributed in the floor. Maybe the necromancer who had built the tower had kept huge vats of liquid in these, for experiments and potions. Maybe they had actually been pools, with creatures in them. Now they were mostly empty or else had a scattering of debris in them.

  Pulling from this level was easy enough, I could limit the groups who chased me to four at a time. And the only challenge therefore was the commander. Every time I drew him towards my friends, I was anxious in case he again spawned with a weapon that was damaging to the undead. That would mean Raitha having to tag him first out of the small group he came with, before I’d take the four or five hits that would have killed me. My fears, however, were never realised. The glaive must have been a rare item (albeit a fairly useless one for us, given that Grythiss had no spear skill and a much better DPS with his +2 longsword) because it didn’t drop the rest of the day.