Crimson Sands
Page 49
While we were busy with the fodder, the enemy forces had torn up large sections of the docks and turned them into some sort of boarding ramps.
The wet, treated lumber walkways were doing a great job at defending the invaders against the arrows and fire based spells being wielded by the city guard.
Kjara had already spotted the nearest ramp squad and was sending arrows out in a steady stream.
I couldn’t see much of the creatures carrying the ramps, but from a few brief glimpses I could tell they were a lot bigger than their skreel allies.
As they got closer, I finally got a full view of one of the dock bearers, and damn it was ugly.
The creature looked like a troll had mated with a blobfish and given birth to something that exemplified the worst of both.
Folds of slimy, globular fat covered it from head to toe, adding a gelatinous wrapper over a collection of muscles capable of supporting its portion of the makeshift siege ladder with one arm while dragging a wicked looking club behind it.
The game labeled these things as marcids.
The decking shifted, hiding the hideous creature from view one again, but I didn’t think I’d ever be able to get that sight out of my head.
I cast a Flamestrike and held the flaming javelin ready, aiming for ground in front of the incoming siege crew.
I’d seen flaming arrows and other fire spells splash against the treated wood ineffectively, but if I timed it right, we were about to see some flying marcids.
I counted softly to myself and then let the javelin fly. My aim was right on target, the spell sticking into the ground about five feet in front of the rushing marcids.
Those in the lead tried to stop their momentum, but the sheer weight of their burden kept them charging forward.
The front ranks ran past the flaming javelin, and seconds later the spell erupted, blasting several of the marcid crew out from under the makeshift ramp and even sending the structure itself a few feet into the air.
*** Flamestrike burns the Marcid Warrior with magical fire, inflicting a serious wound! Marcid Warrior is on fire! ***
*** Flamestrike burns the Marcid Warrior with magical fire, inflicting a critical wound! Marcid Warrior is on fire! ***
*** Flamestrike burns the Marcid Warrior with magical fire, inflicting a glancing wound! Marcid Warrior is on fire! ***
*** Flamestrike burns the Marcid Warrior with magical fire, inflicting a glancing wound! Marcid Warrior is on fire! ***
The creatures began to screech and roll around on the ground in agony as the flames ate away at their flesh. A quick look at my combat log revealed that these things were especially vulnerable to fire.
The archers lining the walls took advantage of the now vulnerable creatures, concentrating their fire on the exposed crew.
Without the full complement of bearers, the remaining crew were forced to abandon their burden and retreat.
*** Kjara has killed a Marcid Warrior! Your party gains 50xp! ***
*** A City Guardsman has killed a Marcid Warrior! Your party gains 50xp! ***
*** Marcid Warrior is on Fire! Marcid Warrior is burned for major damage! ***
*** Fire has killed Marcid Warrior ! Your party gains 50xp! ***
*** Marcid Warrior is on Fire! Marcid Warrior is burned for major damage! ***
*** Fire has killed Marcid Warrior ! Your party gains 50xp! ***
I heard panicked screams coming from the wall nearest the gate and saw that one of the crews had managed to plant their section of docking onto the wall, creating a makeshift ramp for the enemy to storm the ramparts.
Hordes of skreel were clambering up the ramp and pouring onto the walls, assaulting the defenders in that area.
The combat messages were becoming a distraction with all of the chaos all around, so I quickly toggled almost everything off.
I flagged down Amenhotep and Kjara and headed towards the breach. This part of the wall was defended by mostly NPCs, and while they were holding their own, that ramp needed to be dealt with.
Kjara pulled out her swords and dashed into the mix, her whirling blades turning the invading force into sushi.
Amenhotep mounted the ramp and used his shockwave skill to knock most of the skreel off of the ramp and I tossed a Flamestrike at its base to keep the enemy from regaining a foothold.
The marcids who had carried the ramp in the first place ran away from the pending fireball and the NPC guardsmen managed to dislodge the ramp with Kjara and Amenhotep’s help.
Things were not going well for the rest of the defenders. Several groups of marcids had managed to place their siege ramps and the defenders were barely holding back the surge of skreel.
The city guard was barely holding their own, and if not for the small groups of players who had come to assist, I was pretty sure the city would already be overrun by fish men.
The earlier rain of AOEs and arrows was nonexistent as the focus turned to securing the wall itself.
I caught a glimmer in my peripheral vision and glanced in that direction.
Large, crustacean-like monstrosities crawled out of the wreckage at the edge of the battlefield, the system identifying them as lopholiths.
Take a centaur, exchange the equine bits for crustacean, grow it to the size of a monster truck, and then cover any fleshy bits with a suit of thick chiton plate and you’d have a lopholith.
And to add insult to injury, each of the giant crab-taurs carried an equally deadly looking spiked chiton glaive.
They charged across the field, galloping faster than a horse, unimpeded by the lesser beings before them.
Those skreel unlucky enough to get in their way were smashed aside or crushed outright. The marcids did their best to keep clear, but even then a few of the blob-trolls found their end under the trampling claws of the lopholiths.
The creatures galloped directly for the ramps where the skreel and marcids had established a hold.
The makeshift ramps groaned under their weight but held as they climbed up and crashed into the melee on the top of the wall.
I watched as the one closest to my position reached the defensive line. A single swing of its massive glaive took out several defenders, cleaving them in twain and forcing the entire line to retreat or be crushed under its weight. Behind it, a second lopholith reached the top and headed in the opposite direction, a flood of skreel followed in its wake.
Up and down the walls this tactic was repeated, and in areas with only the city guard present, the impact was devastating.
Kjara shouted, “Let’s go!” and ran down the wall towards the nearest breach point, easily weaving between the amassed defenders.
Amenhotep followed, using his bulk to clear the way as we made our way towards the bloodbath.
As we got closer, I got a better read of our opponent.
*** Lopholith Warrior, Level 20 [Elite] ***
*** HP: 98%, SP: 99% ***
“Level twenty elite! What the fuck,” I cursed as we charged forward, making sure my aura was still up and prepared to heal my ass off.
I was almost certain that neither I nor Kjara could take a direct hit from the beast and survive.
We reached the line of engagement with the beast and Kjara leapt over its first massive swing, her blades slashing across the thing’s lower body, taking a chip out of its armor but doing little real damage.
Its return blow clipped her boot as she leapt over it, sending her tumbling away.
It raised its glaive overhead to finish her but was rocked back on its hind legs when Amenhotep smashed into its exposed forelegs. His khopesh lashed out, striking at the exposed underbelly of the beast and scoring a minor wound that took a small chunk off of the beast's health bar.
I quickly healed the wounds Kjara had suffered from the glancing blow and subsequent fall and then extended my spear into its longer form and readied my Precision Strike skill, looking for weak points in the lopholith's armor.
All around us the NPC guards hacked at t
he thing, their blows doing tiny slivers of damage.
Luckily their presence provided an abundance of targets for the beast to focus on instead of us, allowing us to focus on offense instead of constantly dodging instant death.
My healing was almost useless for the NPC guards. Any that got hit by anything close to a solid blow were sent directly to the afterlife. Do not pass go, do not collect two hundred credits.
Those struck by glancing blows who managed to survive I healed back to full, leveling up my Cure Wounds spell in the process.
Amenhotep’s health dropped a whopping sixty percent as he caught one of the thing’s blows on his shield and I started healing him as quickly as I could.
As the monster raised up for another blow, I finally caught a glimpse a weak spot on its flank and thrust my long spear and scored a critical hit.
The beast screeched and began leaking whatever ichor it had in place of blood all over the city walls as the bleeding status took effect.
Kjara danced around its blows and focused her attacks on a single point on the lopholith's back, the repeated strikes starting to break through; but so far, damage-wise, our efforts had done very little to the thing other than piss it off.
I was beginning to wonder what the developers were thinking with this whole thing when a series of war horns rang out from inside of the city and reinforcements began to arrive from inside the city.
Temple Guard decked out in ornate bronze armor, and most importantly, levels, joined the fight.
The elite NPC warriors of Heru-et rushed in to confront the elite beasts, their blows doing what our lower level weapons and skills could not: serious damage.
Kjara flashed me a grin as the lopholith turned its attention on the newcomers. She danced forward, leaping onto the monster’s back and stabbing downward with her blades, releasing a spray of broken chiton and ichor.
The Temple Guard tanks easily held the beast’s attention while we shifted our focus to one hundred percent offense.
Between my team and the new arrivals, we finished off our lopholith and then laid waste to the skreel behind it.
Sadly, the Temple Guards’ involvement cut the xp for the elite beasts down to chump change, but it was better than being cut in half and fed to the fishes... literally.
As we finished clearing our section of the wall, I could see that the reinforcements had done the trick, and the lopholiths were being driven from the walls.
As the last creature fell, the Blood Tide progress bar reached one hundred percent and the skreel swarm began retreating.
Further down the wall I could see groups of players rushing down the walls in pursuit of the enemy. I turned to Kjara with a questioning look, and with a shared grin we jumped up onto the ramp and took off after the fleeing skreel as well.
At first I had the lead, but my elven friend easily passed me by and began launching arrows from her bow at the fleeing creatures.
We chased them all the way to the ruins of the docks, cutting down any that we could reach along the way.
Eventually we had to stop at the ruined docks themselves as the enemy leaped into the water.
The players all began to cheer as the last of the skreel leapt into the water, but those cheers quickly faded when a new sound began to echo in from the destroyed docks.
Kjara came to my side. “What is that?” she said, and I focused on the sound. I heard some of the other players asking each other as well.
“I don’t know,” I responded, and focused once again. After a minute, it finally resolved into a high pitched chanting, quickly rising to a crescendo.
I searched the horizon for its source, and thought I saw something out in the harbor but couldn’t be sure.
The chanting peaked and the blood tide bar pulsed and then disappeared, and then there was dead silence.
“I wonder what that was about,” I said, trying to catch a glimpse of what was out in the harbor.
But instead of more chanting, the air began to fill with the sound of debris hitting the ruins of the docks.
I looked down at the water and saw that the level of the harbor was dropping.
“What the hell?” I asked as the water receded until the entirety of the harbor floor was exposed to the air.
I began to make another joke but Kjara’s hand took mine in an iron grip and I looked over at her. Her eyes were wide with true terror. “Whoa Kimiko, what’s wrong?” I asked.
“We need to go. Now!” she answered, her voice shaking with fear.
I nodded, not understanding what was going on but if this had her so spooked, I wasn’t going to ignore it.
I sent Amenhotep back to the underworld as we ran back towards the walls, jumping over the fallen forms of slain invaders along the way.
We reached the top of the walls before my stamina was gone, but I had to stop or risk passing out. I leaned against the side of the walls, trying to catch my breath and looked to my companion.
She was still spooked, looking off towards the docks and then back into the city, her body visibly tense. “What is it, Kimiko?”
“The water James; the backflow out to sea. You’re an American so you probably have no idea what that means, but in Japan we learn those signs in childhood,” she answered.
“Signs of what?” I asked, still without a clue.
And with one word I understood. “Tsunami.”
I regained my feet and gave her a comforting hug. “I am rested enough now, and we can continue.”
She shook her head and pointed out to the sea. “I don’t think we ever had a chance of outrunning this,” she said and I followed her finger and saw a growing darkness on the horizon, getting bigger by the second.
The darkness resolved into a roaring wall of water, towering hundreds of feet into the sky as it rushed towards the city.
People began to flee the walls and rush back into the city, but knowing that was futile, we remained.
I put my arm around Kjara and held her close as we watched our doom approach.
As it crashed through the docks, I remembered the ace I had up my sleeve.
I wrapped myself around Kjara, and as she clung to my chest I triggered my invulnerability shield, ready to ride out the initial impact and then begin the resurrection process.
The icon for “Shield of Faith” appeared and immediately started counting down from ten seconds.
I started laughing as the shield ran out seconds before the wave crashed over us.
What a time to find out they had fixed that OP ability.
*** You have been killed! ***
*** Your bind location: The Plucky Goose, has been destroyed! ***
*** Respawn location will be assigned randomly. ***
*** QUEST UPDATE: Proving your worth – No longer applicable. ***
…
End of Book 1
Appendix - Kheph Sa’tep
(end of book 1)
Name: Kheph Sa’tep
Race: Human, Saa (Awakened)
Class: Priest of Anpu
Level: 10 Awakened Rank: 2
Experience: 29930/30000
Hit Points: 0/435
Mana: 0/440
Stamina: 0/302
Divine Favor: 21
Attributes (Modifier):
--Strength (+1): 14 (+3)
--Agility (+1): 11 (+1)
--Constitution (+3): 16 (+4)
--Intelligence: 12 (+2)
--Wisdom: 13 (+2)
--Presence (+1): 20 (+6)
--Fortune: 12 (+2)
Racial Skills:
--Child of the Sun I
--Martial Training
--Aspect of War I
--Aspect of Light I
Class Skills:
--Blessing of the Gods
--Divine Blessing
--Temple Training
--Child of the Underworld
Boons and Blessings:
--Unknown Origins
--Blood of the Gods (Awakened)
Combat Skills: (Available: 8)
--Spear: 9 [56%]
--Shield: 7 [40%]
--Medium Armor: 7 [45%]
--Endurance: 5 [53%]
--Precision Strike: 4 [10%]
General Skills: (Available: 10)
--Armorer: 8 [28%]
--Cooking: 4 [98%]
--Discerning Eye : 4 [54%]
--First Aid: 5 [90%]
--Literacy (Saa): 1 [84%]
--Lore (Saa Religion): 10 [37%]
--Survival (Desert): 1 [76%]
--Weaponsmith: 1 [13%]
--Lore (Necromancy}: 3 [15%]
--Riding: 1 [92%]
Divine: (Available: 2)
Skills:
--Combat Caster: 8 [15%]
--Spectral Legion: 2 [N/A]
--Exorcism: 1 [0%]
--Spellcrafting: 1 [15%]
--Aura of the Underworld: 1 [41%]
Spell:
--Soothing Touch: 3 [42%]
--Sunstrike: 2 [10%]
--Jackal’s Tooth: 2 [0%]
--Beacon of Life: 1 [0%]
--Purifying Touch: 1 [12%]