Elusive Prey

by Cheek, Jason

  “So, let me get this straight,” Domenic said, as an unhappy look came over his face. “The one path you left for us to use as an escape route is the one with the massive Orc invasion force?”

  “I figured no one would expect it,” I rationalized, as Domenic’s eyes got big as saucers. “Also, I wasn’t the one that decided to block the main pass.” I glanced over at Kenzie and Thomas who both looked away guiltily, before continuing. “Look at it this way, at least everyone will be getting experience points for a change since we’ll be fighting Orcs instead of players. Besides, I had to stop by Palnisdale anyway, before we get the hell out of dodge.”

  For a moment, Domenic seemed to have an internal debate on whether or not he should say anything more on the subject. From his perspective, I’m sure my plan looked like an insane gamble. In all honesty, it probably was to a point, but it wasn’t like there had been much of a choice once everything was said and done.

  “Whatever, Jay,” Domenic said, letting out an exasperated sigh as he resolved whatever internal conflict that had been bothering him. It was probably best for him to not criticize anyone’s decisions at this point in time. “As long as we have your army of undead and my elementals to throw at the problem, we should be fine. Right?”

  “Ha!” Sarka said, letting out a bark of laughter along with several of my other friends nearby. “What undead army do you think that is?” Seeing the deadpan look on Domenic’s face as he turned back to look at me, I rolled my eyes in annoyance at Sarka and Unalia as I met my friend’s unflinching gaze.

  “Yeah, about that,” I began, as the frown deepened on Domenic’s lips. “It took all the soul stones I had to get Evil Sandra to chase after Mike.”

  “Wait, you mean Julie’s Sandra?” Domenic demanded in a cold voice, as I nodded back. Immediately, his eyes glazed over as he began putting two and two together.

  Even though the woman had never been a part of our group, we both knew who Evil Sandra was from back in the day. She’d always given Julie shit for hanging out with the rest of us, and had always seemed to be waiting for the two of us to break-up. Almost like she was a spurned lover waiting for her own shot to date Julie. To say that Sandra and I didn’t get along was the understatement of the century.

  “So, that’s how you managed to sucker her into chasing after Mike so I could escape,” Domenic exclaimed, as his gauntleted fist slapped into his palm in sudden understanding. “You made a huge force of zombies and players to make Sandra think you were the one attacking her-” I cut in as his voice died away.

  “She somehow managed to ambush the force and slaughter all the zombies, before they managed to escape.” Although I’d have to talk to Mike to confirm that point, it was the most obvious interpretation of the evidence at hand. Although having my people get caught in a reversed ambush hadn’t been part of the plan, it had served our purposes well.

  “Which drove her to chase you down in your weakened state,” Domenic finished, fully getting how I suckered Evil Sandra into chasing after Mike and piecing the rest of my plan together. “Only someone who hated you like Sandra does would throw all caution to the wind if it meant being the one to beat you down.”

  “Hey now,” I protested his insinuation, “my plan was better than that.”

  “Sure it was,” Domenic consolingly said, as I flipped him off. “It didn’t hurt that you knew who the enemy commander was.”

  “That’s usually half the battle,” I agreed, as Domenic continued thoughtfully.

  “You know,” Domenic meaningfully mused, “she probably figured out you were here because you helped to beat off that stealth raid.”

  “Now wait one minute, I made sure I was never visible during that whole fight,” I noisily complained, as Domenic cracked a smile. Without saying a word, he meaningfully looked back at the Devil Dogs and my teammates who were listening in on our discussion. Seeing the confused look on my face, his smile just got broader.

  “It’s not like we have that many Light Elves over here on this side of the map, let alone Half-Orcs,” Domenic said, looking around for Helgath as the rest of us frowned thoughtfully.

  “Fuck my life,” Kenzie muttered under her breath as Zhou and Darkhorse shook their heads at missing the obvious. As the rest of the Devil Dogs busted out laughing, Sarka, Yun, Unalia, and Tinyr joined in on ribbing me for making a noob mistake. Once they realized what had happened, Krishna and Angie joined in on the laugh at Star moment. Hell, even my companions couldn’t help but give me a hard time at missing the obvious.

  Instead of getting pissed off, I took the good-natured teasing in stride. It was important to have everyone laughing together and getting along, especially after all of the tension from earlier this morning. Before I knew it, my old and new friends were joking around and telling anecdotes with one another about their interactions with me. That was important since I was the one that had brought them all together and it gave everyone a chance to get to know one another. Hell, I even noticed Domenic pulling Kenzie aside for a private discussion. Hopefully, they’d kiss and make up, I thought with a laugh. All in all, the whole thing was kind of funny. After all of the careful planning I’d been doing only to screw up on something simple like that … all that I could really do was laugh at myself.

  Also, on some level, I think friends liked to see that the best player in their group sometimes screwed up. At least, to a point. Especially, if you were the one that they’re always comparing themselves to. I think that was because people tended to idolize the person that was at the top of their game or the best in a group. There was a certain pride in it that usually came out in online ladder matches or LAN parties, where one group would put up their best player against another group’s. It happened all the time.

  While all that was true, at the end of the day, your friends liked to see that you still made mistakes. Mostly, that was because it meant you weren’t untouchable. It also meant that your friends had a chance at matching your ability or skill if they worked hard enough to beat you. Though some lead players got offended at this and tried to keep their tricks and tactics to themselves, I wasn’t one of those players. Probably because, I wanted to see my friends succeed just as much as they wanted to win. Not that I was about to hand over the win without doing my best in a match. Besides, the increased competition only drove me to get better myself, which was a win-win situation all the way around.

  Backtracking the way we’d come, Assault Leader Dell kept his Flying Squirrel passing messages to the groups ahead of us as we beat feet. The constant communications allowed for the easy transition for the troopers that we’d left to deal with the eastern graveyard Rogues. As we came upon their position, the group of two-hundred and fifty troopers merged back into our formation without a hitch. All that was left as we passed by was the field of white gravestones that gave witness to their hard work.

  Once again, I was amazed at how well Assault Leader Dell and I worked together. While everyone else was joking around while we headed towards the northern edge of the valley, I was plotting out the quickest course to the pass with Dell coordinating with the troopers left on guard at the eastern graveyard. That would’ve been impossible for me since Tengsly still hadn’t made it back to me yet. While that was somewhat disconcerting, so far, no one had managed to take the little guy out and a quick check of his health bar showed that he was fine. I just hoped that Neysa, Helgath, and Fylreh were alright.

  Dell had the two hundred and fifty troopers meet up with us just outside the edge of the forest. He’d planned this event to minimize the time they left the graveyard unguarded, which meant they were just running up as we reached the rendezvous point. Doing it that way allowed us to bypass the forest and its rough terrain that would slow down our escape.

  The snow crunched under our feet as we headed up the wide trail that lead higher up into the mountains to the north-eastern pass. Thankfully, it was a wide path nearly five hundred yards wide with maybe a thirty degree grade. Meaning, it was tough going
but not enough to slow the troopers down too much. I was just starting to think that maybe we’d managed to throw off the enemy’s pursuit, when a coruscating glare lit up the valley behind us as disaster struck. The corresponding thunderclap of displaced air that rolled through the valley hit us like a physical wave as everyone stopped to look behind us in shocked surprise.

  Due to the crescent shape of the valley, we couldn’t see more than a quarter of a mile behind us. Still, that left little doubt that we were being pursued or what the enemy was blasting at, since there was little to no cover now that we were above the timberline. As if to prove my point, Tengsly’s brown and white form came racing around the bend a moment later as everyone began shouting at once.

  “Sub-Leaders, get your troopers moving double-time!” Assault Leader Dell shouted above the commotion as the Kayden Troopers got moving once again.

  “Come on, people,” my voice cracked in raid chat, “let’s move it! The last thing we want is to get caught by these asshats out in the open!”

  At the same time, Thomas and Kenzie got their people moving, while Krishna and Angie worked on their own guild. Between the steep incline and the frozen snow, the path up the mountain was no joke. The exertion it was taking was already starting to show as my Kayden Troopers gasped for breath while struggling to keep up the punishing pace. As the raid got moving again, Tengsly slammed into my shoulder chittering loudly about a near miss that had singed a part of his fur. As his little claws clung tightly to my fluttering cloak, Helgath’s voice sounded in my head as I hit the little guy with a Regeneration spell.

  ‘We were forced to fall back from the southern graveyard due to wraiths flooding into the area, but were able to follow the survivors to the western graveyard. Whatever was reported made the enemy’s main force change direction. They are now heading back towards the gauntlet. We will seek to lead them towards the southern pass if possible, before rejoining the raid.’ A frown creased my lips as her mezzo-soprano voice came to a stop in my head.

  Even though both of my ladies couldn’t permanently be killed, I still didn’t like knowing they were in danger without me being there to help them. On top of that, while they had a solid plan, they unfortunately didn’t know that we’d run into a stealth group defending the eastern graveyard. Meaning, there was no way that Evil Sandra didn’t know the general direction to search for us and that there was no way for us to hide the trail we were leaving. If they were in telepathic range, I could’ve told them to head on back, but that wasn’t the case without sending Tengsly back out again. Slow communications seriously sucked, I sourly thought, as Fylreh’s voice sounded next in my head.

  ‘When I’d arrived at the mouth of the gauntlet to warn of the approaching enemy’s main force, the raid had already fallen back for the pass. Unfortunately, the enemy has already discovered your trail and are giving chase at a speed far greater than any two-legged has the right to move.’ I could almost picture Fylreh’s angry stomp of contempt as her voice continued on. ‘I see Neysa and your Half-Orc trying to lead the Chofe-ka away from the path, but they refuse to take the bait. To allow the raid to escape, I will do what I can to slow them down so that you might reach the pass in time to escape. If I fall here, I hold you to your oath to watch after Tavon and to safeguard our Clan.’

  Wordlessly, I groaned as her voice came to a stop inside my head. Oblivious to my frustration, Tengsly began chittering up a storm about the difficulty he had in finding both women while the enemy was trying to blast him out of the air as I silently raged. Couldn’t anyone follow the freaking plan? While I know Fylreh meant well, like Neysa and Helgath, she didn’t know that the enemy had already figured out where I was and wouldn’t be distracted from their current course. Unlike my soulmates who would respawn, Fylreh would be permanently killed if I couldn’t recover enough of her body in time to resurrect her.

  Tengsly’s small fury hands stroked the side of my face as he chittered consolingly. Sometime during my mental tirade he’d caught wind of my emotional turmoil and was doing his best to try and calm me down. Rubbing the back of his neck from where he perched on my shoulder, I quickly gave him follow up messages for both Fylreh and Helgath as he writhed happily under my ministrations.

  Unconsciously, my feet came to a stop as I hit Tengsly with a Holy Shield spell as he shot into the overcast sky. Moving to the side so as not to block the raid passing by, I stared down into the valley with my mind spinning a million miles an hour while trying to figure out what we could possibly do to slow the enemy down. If the Chaos Storm Alliance did have some sort of speed buff from one of their Nightmare starts, then there was no way for us to escape in a flat out chase. My eyes studied the slope and the distance left for us to reach the top of the pass. There was maybe a mile left, so give or take twenty minutes that we’d need to hold out, maybe less if we played this smart.

  “What’s wrong?” Domenic asked, as he came to a stop next to me. Obviously he recognized the look on my face as the rest of my friends, Assault Leader Dell, and the rest of the unofficial command staff began to gather around us.

  “Neysa, Helgath, and Fylreh are trying to lead the enemy away or slow them down,” I unhappily said, as another flash of lightning lit up the valley behind us. It already looked to be much closer than before. “Fylreh says that the main enemy force is using some sort of speed buff and will catch up with us before we reach the top of the pass.

  “Fuck, that bitch just won’t give up,” Jill groused unhappily, as Hefe looked between Jill, Krystal, and AJ in confusion.

  “Who are you talking about?”

  “He’s talking about Evil Sandra, Hefe,” Jill snapped irritably. “You remember Julie’s lesbian friend, right?”

  “Sandra is a lesbian?” Hefe asked in surprise, as AJ, Jill, and Krystal groaned in unison. “Wow, that’s kind of hot-” the little Gnome began to say as Bonnie smacked him in the back of the head. That started a whole round of “you’re such a dumb ass” and “I didn’t mean anything by that Pookey Bear” that I just tuned out the rest of their shenanigans as Thomas and Kenzie’s private discussion caught my ear.

  “We could make a rearguard of players and try to hold the line until the rest of the raid made it through the pass,” Thomas said, as Kenzie nodded at his point.

  “I doubt we’d be able to recover any of our corpses though,” Kenzie said, as she thoughtfully studied the width of the pass. “Or that there’s enough players for us to have any chance of really slowing a group that large down.”

  “Our Nature magic tree has an extra forty yards of range,” Angie said, joining the conversation as Krishna nodded next to her.

  “It doesn’t hit as hard as their lightning and flame strikes,” Krishna enthusiastically said, “but good luck trying to dodge them.”

  “Too bad no one else bothered leveling up their Nature magic after getting to level 10,” I blandly said, meaningfully glancing around the circle of my friends. Shaking my head at their sheepish looks, I cursed in frustration. “Fuck, there’s not even any boulders large enough to roll down the ridge at them!”

  “Like that would do much of anything to stop them,” Domenic snorted in derision, speaking up for the first time as he looked around the circle at everyone. “You do realize that my people can make Earth Elementals, right?”

  “Yeah, those guys were really great the last time we saw them in action,” Kenzie said, somewhere between her normal sarcastic tone and a grumble. Obviously, she wanted to give him shit, but was unsure exactly how far to do it as she felt out their new relationship. “Didn’t you have to throw them at the enemy for them to have any chance of reaching the fight?”

  “Um, gravity and rolling stones down the side of a mountain,” Domenic meaningfully said, smirking at the frown that immediately came to Kenzie’s face. “And just for your information, the Earth Elementals are one hundred percent resistant to lightning magic now, besides, you know,” he made air quotes to emphasis his point, “their high elemental resistance
to nearly everything else.”

  No, shut your mouth! I silently swore, as Domenic continued explaining what all we could do to slow the enemy down with his creations. I tried to signal him in multiple ways to shut the fuck up, but he obliviously droned on in detail about the upgrades that he’d figured out and how that would force the Chaos Storm Alliance players to manually beat his creations down by hand for the most part. While that was all well and good, what Domenic didn’t know was that Rani was still in our group and eagerly listening to his every word. From the gleam in her eyes, I could see the V-MMORG Admin was already planning a future emergency Hot Fix to fuck us over.

  Instead of saying anything about the spy in our midst, I just focused on working out a plan with everyone involved. I figured it was best to just keep quiet about the whole thing, or I’d never hear the end of it from Domenic. Besides, it was too late to say anything about it now. The plan itself was quick and dirty but should allow us to reach the pass, hopefully, with enough time for us to get away. As we broke from our huddle, I called over my shoulder as I began heading back down the hill.

  “Just make sure you don’t hit us with friendly fire in all of the confusion!”

  “Why are you heading back down to help them?” Domenic asked in confusion. “Won’t your soulbound NPCs just respawn if they’re killed?”

  “Fylreh won’t,” I replied in an annoyed tone, as I took off at a jog.

  “Who’s Fylreh?” Domenic asked, not understanding who I was talking about since he’d only met Helgath and Neysa.

  “His big titty filly he likes to ride!” Jill answered for me, as my friends either laughed or rolled their eyes at her over the top teasing.

  “You’re heading back for an NPC?” Domenic demanded, as I flipped him off.