Watcher's Question: A LitRPG Saga (Life in Exile Book 2)

by Sean Oswald

  She listened as her parents explained the tactical breakdown further. “Eisuke shall take the lead in all matters related to the actual hunting down of the tree sappers, and if anything befalls him, there will be a clear chain of command amongst the other forest wardens and druids since they are the best equipped for this mission. In the event that we are attacked, Daichi shall assume tactical command with his second in command being Jaselm. The entire force shall be divided into seventeen parties. Fifteen full parties, each comprised of three elves and three humans, a full party for our family anchored by Jaselm, and a guard appointed by Daichi. Mira wondered at first why her dad had not included the old elven monk in the party so that he could better keep watch on her mother and them. Then it dawned on her. Daichi was the only Tier 4 in their force. Heck he was the only Tier 4 that she had ever met. If he was in their group then it would mean that they couldn’t get any XP from Tier 1 or 2 monsters. A few short weeks ago and she would have made fun of her dad for caring about something like that, but now she was grateful for his foresight.

  The final partial party shall be comprised of Balayria the half-orc and two elves. The goblin is unable to join a party by its very nature and so will stay near Sara Nelson, except if he is needed as a night time scout because his night vision is superior even to that of the elves.” Mira listened to the grumbling of the elves at that, none of whom wanted to think that a goblin could be superior to an elf in anyway, even the very strange goblin that Krinnk was.

  “Finally, make sure that you know who all of the healers are and protect them. Healers can make all the difference if we are attacked or if the swarm turns hostile towards us. Both my wife and daughter can heal.” Her father then pointed her out to everyone. “Additionally, there are six druids and four paladins of Shanelle who are able to heal. I am told that twelve healers is a pretty impressive number for this size of a force, but don’t take it for granted.”

  After he finished instructions, her father spoke to their party and explained how he wanted mom, her and Sara to stay back in any fight and to provide support from a distance while Jaselm would be their tank, and he and Daichi would be their melee damage. It was all very straight forward and Mira found herself being bored. More and more she had to come up with ways to occupy her mind. Counting the number of freckles on a person’s face as they spoke or running through her enchantments even while she was talking about something else. Sometimes it caused her to appear distracted but for the most part it worked and at least it was keeping life from getting boring.

  While the rest of the force was being broken down into mixed groups, she noticed her sister sending Krinnk out across the river to scout in the woods. The goblin still didn’t like traveling in daylight, but he seemed to not be overly bothered by it anymore. Mira told herself that she really needed to figure out how her sister’s ability works because maybe she could develop a variation of her charm spell that would work with it.

  Half an hour after this everyone was finally ready to move out. No one rode horses because they wouldn’t be practical in the forest, but they did have ten pack horses carrying most of the supplies. The elven commanders had been skeptical about moving the horses through the forest, but were overruled by the desire for comfort, and they certainly didn’t complain about not having to carry so many supplies in their own packs. Mira’s party with her parents crossed the river third and took positions on either side of the bridge. She thought that it was a waste of time to move like this, but it had been decided that they would use the time between now and when they hit the forest to practice tactical commands and get the groups used to moving together. Each party except her own had an armband of dark green cloth with a black number painted onto it in large characters. That way the party members would be able to recognize each other and be able to coordinate their movements.

  All of a sudden, Sara squeaked out in terror. Emily sprang into action grabbing up the girl and asking, “What is the matter?” when she couldn’t find any injury to explain why she was trembling.

  “It’s Krinnk ...” Sara’s voice cracked as she half cried and half spoke. “He is in danger.”

  Everyone followed her eyes and looked towards the woods only to see the most bizarre sight. Krinnk was running as fast as any goblin ever had across the ground from the edge of the forest towards their groups at the bridge. Behind him was a veritable storm of forest creatures. There were flame lynxes, bears, boars, the lesser treants, and interspersed amongst them were what looked like gigantic praying mantises. There must have been some two hundred beasts headed toward them, and then her eyes saw overhead some two foot long wasps flying in clusters of three or four.

  Mira heard Daichi starting to shout commands and saw Jaselm setting up as a glowing golden wall sprung into life in front of him. She was actually impressed with how quickly the various groups moved into place despite just having been assigned to these units. Time seemed to slow down again as her enhanced mental faculties calculated all the factors she could perceive.

  Her group was in the center, and she felt the Minor Blessing buff fall onto her. She noticed that the wasps were pulling ahead of the beasts who had only now fully cleared out of the woods. It was actually a pretty serious threat. The wasps in and of themselves would probably not be that big of a deal even with over thirty of them, but if the flying insects hit the defenders a few seconds before the beasts then they would have to choose between taking a four inch venom filled stinger or being exposed to the charge of the grounded beasts.

  Before anyone could stop her, she floated up into the air some twenty feet and extended her staff. Who can say what a two foot wasp thinks, but apparently they either perceived an airborne creature of her size to be a greater danger or they were offended that a two-legged manling would take their domain. Either way, as all the clusters closed into a swarm aimed right at her, with a single thought she released the Flame Fan spell she had stored in it and extended her free hand in a quick cast of Flame Fan. The result being that she covered the air over their heads with a fifty foot wide arc of fire that seared the wings of the monstrous wasps. The damage (47) was not sufficient to kill the flying terrors, but more than enough to burn their wings from their backs. Each of them fell to the ground as they entered into the waves of heat. The thirty-four bodies made a series of dull thuds as they impacted the ground. The fall killed some, and those that survived were easy pickings for all of the forces who were not on the front line. Spears, swords, and daggers stabbed into their cracked carapaces ending them.

  Now three hundred yards out the first of the beasts buckled under a flurry of forty crossbow bolts unleashed from the human foot soldiers. More than two dozen of the beasts were hit by the steel quarrels and went down in a flurry of feet and tails, often causing the beasts immediately behind them to get tangled up with them. Typically a human weapon, they had the advantage of range and a lower skill requirement, but with the speed of this enemy there would be no time for a second volley. Each of the footmen dropped their crossbows and pulled longswords, maces, or axes. They followed a quick command to cover the elven archers so that they could shoot for longer.

  Then in a wonder, she saw a wave of arrows fly from the elven longbows just as the beasts hit about one hundred and fifty yards out. Many of the elves must have used various skills because there were only thirty-six bows but they produced nearly one hundred arrows. Some of the arrows streaked with a red aura and burst into flame upon hitting their targets while others crackled with what she assumed was an electrical aura. The true power of elven archers was seen as not just one, but two more volleys of arrows flew into the oncoming rush of fur and muscle all before they crossed the fifty yard line. The cacophony of fury and pain was intense and overwhelming.

  As the beasts got ever closer, Daichi issued another one word command and as one, the six druids in their force stepped in front of the human swordsmen while elven arrows stopped flying. Each must have quickly cast out the same spell because she sensed the same au
ra of magic around each one. Their hands thrust forward in unison and as if conducting some unseen orchestra they all raised their hands in unison and the ground halfway between them and the charging wall of beasts exploded up into the air, upending the bears and few lynxes who had managed to make it through the multiple flights of arrows. The only creatures who made it past the great rents in the earth were the four massive mantises. The druids tried to step back while simultaneously casting a second spell but one of them was too slow and was sent flying like a doll by a massive raptorial leg. She hoped he was okay but dismissed the issue when she saw her mother hurrying over to the downed elf. In the meantime the five standing druids had finished their second spell and what looked like vines erupted up out of the broken earth and entangled the few bears and lynxes who were still alive.

  So that was it. This was coming down to a battle between their force and four monstrous bugs. Each of the insects stood far higher than a basketball hoop, probably fifteen feet. This gave their hooked front legs a massive reach and in seconds what had looked like a total rout of the beasts was swinging the other way. Several warriors and archers were down on the sides of each of the insects who looked like rejects from a Godzilla movie. Long gashes through armor, flesh, and bone alike were evident in each of the fallen, although from the wailing and writhing they were all still alive.

  Mira heard her father’s voice cry out loudly, “They are Tier 3. Be careful! Paladins tank, druids heal, everyone else wait.” She had been wondering if he would be able to fully give over control to others. Each of the paladins stepped up surrounded by a golden aura and used their taunt skills. Metal shields felt like a feeble barrier against the six foot long front legs of the mantises, but these men seemed to be just as competent at this task as the elves had been about theirs.

  Everything was going well as metallic rings sounded each time that a blow fell on a shield and all those behind were waiting for any opening. One of the mantis blows went low and the paladin to her left side was swept from his feet. The druid supporting him had already begun casting Lesser Regeneration so it landed on him just a second after barbs of the giant appendage in front of him pierced through his breast plate driving blood up out of his mouth. There was no time to waste, and while she didn’t want to interfere with the plan, Emily felt she knew the best way to contain this now loose beast and perhaps turn the tide of the fight at the same time. She released the Minor Charm spell that was contained within her staff and aimed to bend the monstrosity to her will.

  Unthinkably, she felt the magic hit it and then wash over it. She almost shouted in victory but then the spell form crumbled and a quick notification popped up.

  Target is immune to your spell! Better luck next time.

  She was stunned. All of her spells had worked so far. How could it have failed? And what was up with that snarky notification? For a second, all of her newfound confidence evaporated and she found herself being an insecure teenager. She had to force herself to look at this logically, try to assess what happened. That would have to wait though as the fight sped on around her.

  Everyone gasped when her spell caused the mantis to stagger for a second, but when it shook it off, swords were drawn in a desperate attempt to hold it at bay. Then out of the corner of her eye, Mira saw a streak of movement. Almost faster than she could follow, Daichi moved forward into the side of the beast, ducking under a wide swing of its front leg. The way he moved couldn’t really be called running. It was more like he was surfing across the ground. All of his forward momentum came to an end with a thunderous boom as his Dragon Fist technique impacted the beast’s armored shell. Spidery cracks spread out from his fist as the force traveled through the flesh behind the armor and burst out its far side in an explosion of gore.

  The mantis stumbled from the impact and planted its face into the ground. Daichi continued to move around it landing a series of blows into its sides. While the warriors closest to it surged forward and thrust their swords into any vulnerable spot they could find. Watching them, Mira realized she had lost track of the rest of the fights going on simply because she was confused after her spell failed. Raising both hands she aimed at the nearest mantis and quick cast a Minor Webbing spell aimed at its back legs while following up with an Ice Dagger spell. (88) Once immobilized and damaged by her spell, the warriors were able to help the tank and hack it to bits. With two of the four down, the rest of the forces fell onto the next and thus like dominoes they fell one leading to the next.

  All around her, Mira saw both human and elven warriors laying on the ground in various states of being healed. All of the healers other than the toppled paladin were making the rounds, first stabilizing anyone in critical condition and then going back and healing the wounds in order of severity. Whereas before it had been Daichi and her father who had been shouting out commands, now in the aftermath it was her mother’s voice that was ringing out. Emily took charge of the triaging of patients and between the castings of her spells was alternately encouraging the wounded and pushing the healers to do more.

  There really wasn’t much for Mira to do. Her dad was meeting with his knights and the elven commanders about their tactical situation and assigning individuals to put the wounded and trapped animals out of their misery. Her mom had the healing under control and Mira was doing her part with her Lesser Regeneration spell every time the two minute cool-down came up. Yet no one was consulting her opinion on any of this so while doing this fairly mindless work, Mira allowed her mind to drift off towards the notifications she had received in combat. She quickly shuffled past and deleted the damage and spell notifications and focused on the XP notifications.

  You have received XP in a Mass Combat Event. Your side in this combat was comprised of more than one party or raid group but this was not a Military Event. In a Mass Combat Event, 50% of all XP is divided evenly between all participants who both survive the event and contributed in a meaningful way. The party or raid group of the individual who performs the killing blow will divide the remaining 50% of the XP along with the death blow bonus.

  Base XP awarded will be modified by bonus or penalty after comparing the number of individuals on each side of the Mass Combat Event as well as the average Tier modifier.

  The XP awarded to each party will be further modified by the Tier modifier.

  Base XP awarded to your side = 13,182 x 1.5 (numerical modifier) = 19,773 XP x.8 (Tier modifier) = 15,818 divided by 97 = 163 XP per individual.

  XP awarded to your party with 100% killing blow bonus:

  34 x Enlarged Wasp: 2040 x .8 (Tier modifier) = 272 per person

  2 x Giant Mantis: 288 x 1.4 (Tier modifier) = 67 per person

  Congratulations! XP gained: 627 (racial modifier)

  Ding! Levels gained: 18th

  Stat points gained: 6. Character points gained: 32

  Mira closed the notifications after thinking about how to maximize XP for everyone there but especially for her family. The concept of raid parties seemed to suggest a group larger than six, but she didn’t know for sure. She could remember dad talking about “raiding with his guild,” but whenever he used to talk about gaming stuff, she would tune him out and focus on Instagram or Snapchat. It kind of irked her that she would have to ask him about it, but it might be important. Either way, by the time she finished reviewing the notifications and thinking about their significance, she realized that all the healing was done, and the force was being assigned various tasks for looting and cleaning up any resources from the battle field.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Often the first part of combat is identifying who the enemy is.” — The Way of Thought by Piersung, monk and crowned champion of the Imperial Tournament circa 733 B.E.

  Dave was torn. The mass combat event had been a veritable gold mine of XP, but these were all people that he was responsible for. It was entirely different from leading a raid in a game. In Eloria he knew that it was real people's lives on the line. Here he had to hear their screams as t
hey were injured. Had to smell the blood or even get the blood of those fighting for him splattered on him. Even worse were the groans of the wounded upon the ground.

  Now that it was over and everyone had been healed he could relax. Emily had even managed to fix the druid who had been first hit by the mantis. Only now could he appreciate the 753 XP that he gained along with the fact that it had pushed him up not just one but two levels, to nineteen. It was so sweet to hear the dinging sound when he read the notifications. Learning that they could create raid parties was also an improvement. He would have to talk to Emily and Mira later to find out what they had gained from the battle, but for now he was just going to bank his character and stat points.

  As far as loot, mostly they just ended up with a lot of fresh meat along with hides and some other crafting materials. Dave found his mind wandering to the dungeon and dreaming of fighting stuff that might drop magical gear for him. With a silent effort, Dave pulled himself back to the here and now and started the work of meeting with the other leaders to sort out what had happened. Two of the forest wardens found arrows imbedded in the mantis corpses. At first, he was ready to dismiss that but Eisuke assured him that these arrows were not from any of their archers but rather from some of the elves who had rebelled against the Throne. The only conclusion which Dave was able to draw was that those nobles really did want to take out Eris’ Rise and cause a war between the moon elves and Albia or perhaps even against the humans in general.

  The human leaders other than Jaselm didn’t have much of an idea about what these elven rebels wanted but were confident that Albia could repel them. For their part the elven leaders and even Daichi seemed very bothered by the betrayal but didn’t feel that the risk of war was very great. The monk was only truly concerned because it made his job with the Meiyo Eihei that much harder. Dave assured him that this fight had been a big power up and asked how many of the men had been able to level up as a result. He was surprised by how many icy stares he received.