Elusive Prey

by Cheek, Jason

  When they reached the gaping hole in the damaged defensive wall that had been taken out earlier in the siege, an even more gruesome sight awaited them. Everywhere they looked, groups of zombies had stopped to consume the corpses of the players that they’d just slaughtered. Fang-filled muzzles and bony-clawed hands tore at the remains with a feral ferocity that sent many of their raid members ducking away to puke out their guts. As the three guild leaders carefully picked their way through the slavering undead groups that were busy feeding to recover their health and came to a stop before the gaping hole, Arcturus looked out at the mass of zombies nearly thirty yards deep backed up against the base of the next defensive wall and immediately began issuing orders.

  “Bjørn!” Arcturus shouted to his guild’s Rogue Officer. “I want a group of three Rogues guarding each Priest.” As the brown and black Wolf-Kin gave him a two-fingered salute and began calling out individual guildmates, he turned to the silver-furred female that was walking up to him. “Liv, get your Priests spread out along the base of the wall.” Gently catching her arm, he lowered his voice. “Make sure everyone stays near the base.”

  “What in the hell do you think you’re doing?” Dangas cried out, as the Norwegian players began hurrying away to take up their positions.

  “Star said to keep our forces on this side of the first defensive wall,” Arcturus answered without hesitation. “I’d suggest putting the Mages on top of the wall, but keep some rope handy if they need to rappel down on this side of the wall if needed.” Turning around, he continued, sweeping his arm down an imaginary line. “The Rangers we’ll have to risk being a little further back so they can drop plunging fire on the defenders.”

  “Listen here, bloke,” Dangas said in an annoyed tone, as his guildmates began streaming through the gap to look for any enemies they could pick off. “We’re not here to fuck spiders, so why not join in on the fun?”

  “Da, why not go further?” Dmitry asked, signaling for his people to hold position as he met the black-furred wolf’s sky-blue eyes. “This is, how you say, total surprise, no?”

  “Hurry up, Bogan,” an Aussie player named James Ross-Munroe called out as he ran past the trio, momentarily interrupting their conversation. “I can see the cocksuckers getting into position on top of the wall!”

  “They’re dreaming if they think they’re going to stop us now,” Daniel McConnell, aka Bogan to his friends, called back as he followed after his friend with an arrow already nocked in his bow.

  More excited shouts rang out around them as the majority of the Aussie players began pouring through the gap around them. A quick glance would place most of the players as either Rangers or Mages. As the melee classes began milling around like this was a social event, Arcturus unhappily turned to face the other two guild leaders.

  “Your guildmates are all adults and can do whatever they want, but I’m telling you right here and now, something is not right. What is that, maybe three hundred corpses?” Arcturus spat, as he swept a hand at the remains around them. “There should be at least a thousand if not more bodies here if we’d caught them all by surprise.” The Norwegian reasoned as Dangas rolled his eyes while Dmitry looked thoughtful.

  “Oh, come on, man,” Dangas exclaimed in annoyance at the other two guild leaders’ hesitation. Before he could say more, a Dark Elf-Human, Half-Orc, and Red-Furred Panda girl stormed up to the trio.

  “Dangas, why are you letting everyone rush in deeper?” Steph complained, as her Half-Orc boyfriend Toxi silently came to a stop behind her. “I thought Star warned us not to head in any deeper?”

  “What’s the big deal?” Dangas asked, as he pointed towards the far wall. “How much can they really hurt us sixty yards away?”

  “A lot,” Rassilon said, as a look of consternation crossed his face. “The max range of my spells are all sixty yards out.”

  “So what,” Dangas said, waving away his guild officer’s concern as their guildmates that had run forward began blasting at the far wall. There was no consistency to the style of ranged attacks or cohesive fire as Flurry Blasts, Flame Strikes, Arcane Missiles, and arrows began peppering the Chaos Storm Alliance players.

  “I say, let everyone have their fun while they can get it,” Dangas called out over his shoulder, as he strode away while unlimbering his own bow. “All of you can do what you want, but I’m going to join in on the fun and see if I can get my archery skill up. Besides,” he said with a laugh, “even if those fuckknuckles go for a long-range duel, we can pack more range classes in front of the wall than they can mount on top of it.”

  “Fucking amateur!” Arcturus cursed, as he threw up his hands and turned away to join his own people getting into position behind the wall. Dmitry was looking back and forth between the two guild leaders trying to decide what to do, while the Aussie guild officers argued about Dangas not sticking to the plan, when a brilliant white light flared across the gap between the two walls blinding everyone.

  “Yebat-kopat!” Dmitry yelled, dropping to the ground along with everyone else in the area as an echoing boom reverberated between the walls of the gauntlet.

  Lifting his head, Dmitry rubbed at the spots before his eyes as he looked out across the field between the two defensive walls. For a second, the Russian didn’t understand what he was looking at. Aussie players and zombie corpses littered the ground everywhere he looked as massive flaming balls of fire began slamming into the ground in front of the defensive wall and setting everything ablaze. As he watched, the field of zombie bodies began to twitch, here and there, as the undead began unsteadily rising to their clawed feet. A quick glance showed him that the Aussies that had been caught by the surprise attack were all still alive, but stunned from whatever magic attack had hit them.

  “All Tanks and Priests report to the wall,” Arcturus’ voice rang out over the confused shouting. “Tanks will set up a shield wall, while Priests heal the injured from this side of the wall!” The Norwegian’s voice took on a harsh tone of command. “I repeat, from this side of the wall. Do not pass through to the other side of the wall to help the injured!”

  “Krasnyy Volki, bystro … bystro … bystro,” Dmitry voice bellowed, while shaking his head to clear his wits as he continued calling out commands. “Tanks and Priests, sledovat' ukazaniyam norvezhtsa!” Seeing the Aussies burning on the ground where they’d dropped, he began spamming out Regeneration, targeting Dangas first as his voice resounded in raid chat. “Damage dealers, return fire!”

  Before anyone could react, another blast of brilliant light flared across the field as everyone was blinded once again. Instead of hitting the deck, Dmitry stayed on his feet as he partly used his hand to protect his eyes from the overwhelming glare. Through his spread fingers, the Russian could make out the strobing effect of the strands of pure lightning dancing across the gap as he swore, realizing there had to be at least two hundred Mages if not more firing at once. The terrible assault only lasted for a few seconds, but that was more than enough time to take down everything in its path, dead or alive, as the Aussies collapsed to the ground once again stunned and in a twitching heap with their bodies on fire.

  Dmitry went back to casting his HOTs as a gray-skinned Half-Orc pushed past him to slam a large shield into the ground before the fiery inferno before the gate. Hunkering down behind the oversized shield, the Aussie Barbarian was the first in line to start the shield wall. Almost at the same time, bluish-white Frost Blasts and purple Arcane Missiles flew past the Russian on either side of him, targeting the opposite defensive wall, as the two Aussie guild officers joined the fight. Within seconds of the call to arms, a handful of players had joined the Half-Orc to build out the shield wall, while others had joined Dmitry in trying to heal the injured as Arcturus led the counteroffensive.

  Unfortunately, for most of those cut down before the wall, the help was far too late. As Dmitry and the handful of Priests fought to keep their raid mates alive, the survivors were constantly being bombarded by waves of offensi
ve spells and arrows. The handful of survivors that had made it through the initial double-salvo of lightning strikes had only lived as long as they had due to being mostly protected by the large stones scattered around the hole in the wall.

  Even more unbelievable was the reaction of the undead pets that had all been cut down across the field. Almost as one, the zombies began to unsteadily climb back to their feet completely unhurt, even though many of them were lit up like torches from the Flame Strikes raining down amongst them. Dmitry confirmed that point by quickly checking the health of his own zombie pets in his HUD. It was truly an amazing display of the toughness of these undead creatures. Hope blossomed in the Russians chest as the raid’s ranged attacks began harrying the enemy on top of the opposite wall, when suddenly six massive boulders came arching over the wall.

  The perfectly round spheres looked to be at least six feet in diameter as they slammed into the packed mass of zombies and mowed swaths of them down. Except for the immense thud of the initial impacts that could be felt through the soles of his boots that were immediately followed by intense cracking and popping sounds of bones being crushed as the massive boulders’ slowly rolled to a stop, there were no other sounds from the terrible assault. The undead pets were utterly silent. Even as nearly two-hundred zombies were pulverized to death, there were no screams or shrieks of agony from the packed together horde, nor did they retreat or try to spread out to lessen their deaths from the bombardment.

  In that second, Dmitry understood Star’s warnings as to the limitations of the undead pets became perfectly clear to him. Immediately, the Russian began shouting in raid chat for everyone to command their zombies to spread out on the field so they weren’t such easy targets. Unfortunately, except for the handful of players near the gaping hole in the wall, the rest of the raid didn’t understand what he meant as the horde of zombies became gridlocked as each fought to move in conflicting directions, while their guardian zombies blindly followed after them as the Chaos Storm Alliance continued flinging boulders into the scrum at a surprisingly fast rate. The confusion only became worse as more voices began offering conflicting directions or outright orders as the Lightning Blasts and Flame Strikes began intermittently hammering the zombies and surviving Aussie players alike. Seeing Dangas nervously hiding behind one of the older boulders with two other survivors, Dmitry called out to the Priests around him.

  “I take Dangas!” Dmitry pointed to a male Priest named Perth Supernova. “You take man on right. You,” he pointed to the Silver Wolf-Kin named Liv, “take man on left. We use Holy Shield so they can fall back!” Getting nods from both players, Dmitry bellowed at the top of his lungs to be heard over the ruckus.

  “Dangas … Dangas!” Seeing the Aussie Guild Leader’s panicked face whip around to look at him, Dmitry waved his arm over his head. “Come to us!” The Russian exaggeratedly pointed to the two Priests next to him. “We cast Holy Shield to keep safe!”

  “Are you fucking insane?” Dangas screamed as a Flame Strike dropped close enough to cover the entire group in a wave of flames. Instead of catching fire, the flames dissipated within seconds as the Holy Shield surrounding each of them absorbed the damage. Hurriedly, the three healers recast Holy Shield as the Aussie players looked at each other in shocked surprise. Seeing their Holy Shields refreshed gave the trio a needed boost of confidence. After an excited discussion with a lot of arm waving, the Aussie shouted back. “We’re coming over!”

  “Bystro … bystro … bystro!” Dmitry shouted, falling back to his native Russian in the excitement. The men seemed to understand the gist of what he meant, since Dangas shoved his guildmates towards the safety of the shattered gateway shouting “Go … go … go!” The Aussie Guild Leader was the last in line as he pushed off the boulder and ran after his men.

  While the survivors only needed to cover a distance of about twenty feet, the intensity of the incoming strikes and the numerous AOEs hammering the ground in front of the shattered wall forced the Aussies to take a circuitous route as their Holy Shields repeatedly flared to life. The Chaos Storm Alliance players must have caught sight of the running men, because they were targeted within seconds of leaving their cover. If not for more Priests joining Dmitry’s group in keeping the trio alive, the men would’ve been taken out before they’d covered half the distance.

  It’s not that the other side of the wall was completely safe. Even though none of the spell blasts hammering the field were capable of reaching further than sixty yards, the Rogue and Rangers’ unique attacks had no problem reaching them. In fact, if not for the Warriors and Barbarians using their shields to create a Shield Wall, the Priests and Mages supporting the Aussie survivors would have been driven back from the intensity of the incoming barrage.

  Just a few feet from safety, the lead runner, a Ranger named JT Cummins, collapsed to the ground stunned as an unlucky Lightning Strike smashed through his Holy Shield in one go. Although the powerful blast was mostly reduced to nothing, if not for Kane Wiblen, the second man in line, and Dangas using their own bodies to protect their fallen comrade, JT would’ve been dead in the seconds it took for a new Holy Shield to be cast. Before the stun had faded away, Kane was dragging the Ranger’s limp body the last few feet to safety, while Dangas hung back a few feet trying to protect them the best he could with his shield, when a voice bellowed out in raid chat.

  “Defensive line, advance!”

  Dmitry was surprised to see Ivan, the Russian Guild’s Warrior Officer, taking charge of the line of Defensive Warriors. Hunkering behind his massive iron-bound shield, the bald-headed Dwarf strode forward with his shield locked in place with the Half-Orc Barbarian from earlier. Dmitry was just letting out a sigh of relief and clapping Liv and Perth on the shoulders for a job well done, when a deafening whump rang out in front of the gate.

  “Cyka Blyat!” Dmitry exclaimed loudly at the sight of a massive boulder landing on top of the Aussie guild leader and begin to roll forward. There was a yelp of fear as Kane snatched JT up in his arms and dove out of the way. Not that the Mage’s quick thinking saved their lives as the pair of Aussies were crushed to death a second later, when another four boulders landed in close proximity to the first. Dmitry heard Ivan’s shouted command in raid chat for the defensive line to hold fast, while the Mages and Priests scattered in fear as the crushing wave of death rolled through the shattered gates.

  Chapter Seven

  (Evil Sandra’s forces sieging Domenic’s fortress)

  “Thought you could ambush my raid in the middle of a siege and not pay for it,” Evil Sandra sneered out loud, as a wicked smile came to her lips. “How do you like them apples now, loser?”

  Proudly, Evil Sandra’s eyes watched the devastation occurring in the field below, from safely on top of the ruined defensive wall, as man-sized boulders continually hammered at the shrinking mass of undead creatures below. After twenty minutes of nearly constant bombardment, the horde of zombies that had taken out her girlfriend, Julie, and the rest of the guild leaders in the Chaos Storm Alliance in both Darom and Telrain were nothing but an unsightly slurry of crushed bones and bloody viscera covering nearly half of the field. The only time any of her people bothered to blast the field with their magic was to catch the handful of enemy players still trying to respawn at their gravestones. By now, most had given up and were respawning back at the graveyard. Wait until they got a load of the surprise that was waiting for them there, she thought with a mental snort.

  She was sick and tired of hearing the constant excuses from the rest of the Chaos Storm Alliance. First it was Genele losing control over the situation in Delonshire. How that dumbass could lose to a group of nobodies that he outnumbered ten to one is something he was still trying to make excuses for. Apoxsee wasn’t any better with his constant whining. If she had to listen even one more time to his “nobody told me to expect an army to show up in Darom” she was going to scream bloody murder.

  Honestly, how Julie put up with these dickless wonders s
he’ll never know. That’s why it was so important that the trap she’d set be such a categorical success. It was proof of her capable leadership in a male dominated group such as this. Though, if asked the truth, she silently admitted that it had helped knowing that the enemy was coming, the forces they had on hand, and the expected mode of attack they’d be using ahead of time.

  Still, boxing them inside the kill-box she’d built ahead of time was way more effective than even she’d imagined. The dumb corpses had uselessly clawed at the stone blocks of the defensive wall while her army slaughtered them like sheep. It was literally like shooting fish in a barrel.

  Even though none of their Scouts had layed eyes on the group as they entered into the valley, it had been easy enough to figure out. When she heard about the odd group of Light and Dark Elves attacking her Rogues during their stealth run earlier this morning, she’d immediately known what it meant, even before she heard about the Gnomeling and Half-Orc that was with them. You’d think Julie’s ex-boyfriend would have been smarter than that. Really, when it came down to it, he was just another fucking noob. Seriously, where was all of the tactical genius that Julie had always warned her about with her ex-boyfriend? Evil Sandra couldn’t help the excited giggle that escaped her lips.

  It was obvious that Starfairy had thought he’d roll over them like he’d done to everyone else up until now, Evil Sandra thought, silently laughing at the ridiculous name Julie had shared with her earlier that morning. There was something to be said for The World’s new Hot Log out feature. It was the only way they could coordinate everything going on in-game between their divided forces. Besides that, it was a good excuse to have a little girl-time together throughout the day. Her thoughts were interrupted when a brown-leather clad woman appeared at her side.

  “Hey ES,” Shapo Xela casually said, as soon as she appeared. “I just wanted to let you know that none of those losers have tried to respawn at their gravestones for more than seven minutes and the boys are already starting to talk shit about how easy those zombies are.” The Ranger gave her a sassy grin. “Think it’s time to go out and get those bastards?”