Elusive Prey

by Cheek, Jason

  “The newfar raid has reached the pass!”

  “Fuck!” I swore, as I hit Domenic’s group with a Healing Breeze last. What can I say, I figured being somewhat disoriented would make him a bit more pliable. As we reached Domenic, I saw Gala, the assistant raid leader, struggling to climb to his feet. Hauling the Half-Dwarf up by his armored collar, I turned him around to face me.

  “Gala, the enemy is almost upon us, have the survivors carry anyone they think that can be resurrected and retreat up the slope,” I ordered in a tone that brooked no argument, as Domenic disorientedly groaned from where he lay on the ground as his debuffs faded away. “On my honor, I’ll get your lord to safety.”

  “I’ll hold you to that, milord,” the Half-Dwarf uncomfortably said, as he took in the worrisome situation. As he headed off, I pulled my friend to his feet. “What the hell happened, Dom?”

  “Those fucking assholes shot my Moonshine Elements just as after they left our line,” Domenic snarled, after spitting out a mouthful of blood. “What the hell is up with that bullshit?”

  “I told you before, the monsters here are not dumb mobs like in other games,” I once again explained, as my friend did his best to wipe away the dirty trails of blood that had run down his face. “They adapt quickly to new tactics.”

  “I didn’t think you were going to come back for me,” Domenic sneered at me, as he turned to face me. Seeing the same dirt and blood smeared face looking back at him, he let out an embarrassed sigh. “Sorry about that, man. I didn’t mean it like that.”

  Yeah you did, I unhappily thought, as I silently studied his face. It suddenly occurred to me that this attitude was all new. We’d always been extremely competitive with one another, but this was different. He’d never overreacted like this until after he’d become the “Lord” of his own group of people. Maybe, my friend was just having a problem wearing the hat of leadership.

  “Look Dom, this isn’t about ego,” I said, looking him in the eye. “This isn’t about who’s the better player. It’s about being smart and getting all of us out of this mess in one piece.”

  “I know … I know,” Domenic said, as he looked away to watch his people collecting up their dead comrades. I could tell that seeing their suffering was weighting heavy on his heart. “I really fucked up, didn’t I?”

  “More than you know.” The derision was clear in my voice at his bad choice. “Let’s hope that Evil Sandra’s raid can run cover for us.” Looking towards the pass we’d used to flee his valley, Domenic began swearing under his breath as I nodded to my team. Heading back up the slope, I called to Domenic over my shoulder.

  “Come on, man. We need to make it back to the main raid before they catch up to us.”

  “Run cover for us?” Domenic asked in confusion.

  As we headed up the slope at a run, I quickly explained the supposed agreement that Julie had made with the northern Orcs in regards to the Kingdom of Kader. While I’d briefly talked about this earlier with Domenic, he really hadn’t been paying attention to the specifics. The more he heard, the more upset he got as Domenic eyed the approaching Chaos Storm Alliance raid with dread. I tried to explain to him that demi-humans and monsters could lie and that I was ninety-nine percent sure the Orcs were using Julie’s plan for their own goal of domination, but I could tell by the look in his eyes that he didn’t really believe a word I was saying. The idea that NPCs weren’t beholden to honor their agreements, aka quests, with a player just didn’t compute.

  Helgath’s only comment was to ask if my friend was a complete idiot or not. He wasn’t but at times like this, I sometimes wondered the same thing. As we talked, Helgath and I sparingly used Healing Breeze. The number of dead Half-Dwarves made me silently shake my head at the loss. Nearly one in two had the body of a dead comrade draped over their backs. Besides being covered in blood and dirt, their impressive armor had taken a serious beating from the explosion. As we neared our waiting Kayden Troopers that were lined up across the rocky thirty yard wide pass, Fylreh’s caught up to my side.

  “They’re not going to let us escape without a fight,” the filly said, glancing over her shoulder.

  “I expected nothing less,” I agreed, as the Orc invasion force spread out over the field below. It was like watching a black sludge that covered everything in its path.

  “They’ll never stop until they’re dead,” Helgath added, from where she rode on Neysa’s back on my opposite side.

  “This is going to royally suck if we have to fight all the way to Palnisdale,” Neristhana said, adding in her two cents.

  “Hey Dom,” I called over to my friend who had started hanging back with his own troopers. “Can your people call up some Earth Elementals once we reach our lines?”

  “Yeah, we have plenty of ore in our bags,” Domenic confirmed, as his face grew more animated. “You wanting to pull the same trick we used on the Chaos Storm Alliance raid?”

  “I think it’s going to be the only way for us to make a clean break,” I agreed, as he gave me a thumbs up.

  All that I could do was hope that the terrain was rough enough to slow the Orcs down. The front of the horde chasing us was maybe a little over a hundred yards behind us and closing fast. This wasn’t the spaced out vanguard that we’d just fought, but a nearly solid wall of charging Elite Orc Warriors. The only real positive that we had going on for us was the bottle neck of the entrance to the pass and the rough terrain. These were the thoughts going through my mind, when we hit the sixty yard mark ahead of the first line of Kayden Troopers. As if Assault Leader Dell could read my mind, he addressed me in the raid’s command channel.

  “Milord Ironwolf, I had everyone summon their full complement of undead pets while we waited and everyone’s mana has fully recovered. I also sent the majority of the raid ahead into the pass and have assigned sections to set up fallback positions along the way.” Dell’s voice took on a differential tone. “I was just hoping that we’d have a bit more space between us and the Orcs to work with when we pulled back.”

  “Who does this guy think he is?” Domenic suddenly asked outside of raid chat, bristling at the implied insult that he’d somehow screwed up the planned withdraw.

  “The second in command of all my forces on this side of the map,” I replied in a deadpan voice, as Domenic’s frown grew at my words.

  “You mean he’s an NPC?” Domenic asked in obvious surprise. “Dude, your NPC commander is now ridiculing me for making a bad call?”

  “Don’t fuck with him, Dom,” I said, completely over his attitude as I switched back to the raid’s command channel.

  “So was I, but we might have a way to fix that,” I said, as Domenic flipped me off for not standing up for him. Seriously, what the fuck did he expect me to say? Good job? Rolling my eyes, I continued ignoring Domenic’s antics. “Lord Burnslinger is going try the same Earth Elemental trick that he used against the newfar earlier.”

  “I’m not sure how effective that’ll be with Orcs, milord,” Assault Leader Dell said in a hesitant tone, as Domenic and I traded a confused glance.

  “It doesn’t hurt to give it a try, right?” Domenic pushed, sounding annoyed that Dell thought his awesome new attack might not be effective.

  Assault Leader Dell couldn’t clarify his concern beyond that. Not that Domenic gave it a rest. Hearing their back and forth, the rest of our friends joined in on the discussion making smartass comments. While Domenic was less than happy at some of the more creative nicknames for his faux pas with the Moonshine Elementals exploding too early and taking out half of his own people, the joking did release some of the tension that had been building since we found out that Evil Sandra was hot on our tail. Though, the best by far was from AJ who came up with Pre Ejaculation Master.

  While the shit talking was funny, I mostly ignored the back and forth as Fylreh, Neristhana, and I focused on helping the handful of stragglers that were falling behind as the Uten Syn guild began firing off a storm of Homing Zaps over our head
s. The hundred yard range that the spell had allowed them to rain down the pain before anyone else could. The thick volleys of silver flares flashing over our heads was an impressive sight. It kind of reminded me of a fantasy version of a modern day High Mobility Artillery Rocket System but without the massive explosion at the end as the bright flares slammed into the horde’s front lines with pinpoint accuracy.

  The total number of players using the level 30 Homing Zap spell was impressive as hell since that meant the majority if not all of the Uten Syn players had at least hit level 30. Though, it did make me wonder how any of them still had any mana left after the fighting earlier. The only thing that made any sense was the Nature tree’s low mana costs for its spells. As we got to within twenty yards of the defensive line, I saw that nearly half of the force guarding the pass was made up entirely of the Uten Syn guild members.

  It was a smart layout for a bottleneck such as this. Similar to the formation Assault Leader Dell had used on the slope below in-between the two passes. This time around, the formation was thirty-five troopers wide and five rows deep which nearly filled the width of the pass, except for a small path open down the center for the fleeing Half-Dwarves and the rest of us as we raced to safety. I choked back a laugh as Helgath and Neysa looked over at me like I was crazy. Okay, so maybe safety wasn’t the best word to use, I thought, as my girls rolled their eyes at me. While I was glancing back over my shoulder at the mass of Orcs charging up the slope, they came into range of the Kayden Troopers as the purple-black streaks of Enhanced Shadow Bolts joined the Uten Syn’s volleys.

  The Orcs’ speed at which they closed the gap between us was truly terrifying. I’d have to pick Helgath’s brain to see if they were using some sort of travel magic or not, but if the Orcs could cover twice the distance that we could in the same amount of time, I honestly didn’t see a way for us to outpace them. As I tried to come up with a strategy that might help us escape this situation, my eyes studied the effects of the glowing blasts as they hammered into the advancing Orc lines.

  At first, the volleys seemed to do little better than spitting into the proverbial eye of a hurricane. On the narrowing rocky slope heading up to the pass, there were only so many Orcs that could come at us at once. As I watched, the heavy bombardment started to finally slow the enemy’s advance down. Like the battle earlier, as long as we didn’t run out of mana and they couldn’t bring their numbers to bear, we had a chance to hold out.

  My eyes were pulled away from the gruesome sight as we passed through the defensive line. Already, I could see Domenic was getting his people working on summoning Earth Elementals. Coming to a stop next to Thomas and Kenzie, I pulled out one of the level 45 Elite Orc Warrior soul stones that I’d collected during the fight and began the work of replacing my zombies as Assault Leader Dell came trotting over to me.

  “Thank you for the timely rescue, milord,” Dell said in a hushed voice, as he came to a stop in front of me. “The situation was starting to look quite grim.”

  “Don’t worry about it, Dell. You did an awesome job,” I said, trying to express my gratitude for taking the initiative as my hands worked through casting the complex spell. So many people didn’t make the effort to think through a plan of action. “If you hadn’t taken that risk, every last one of us would now be dead.”

  “Thank you for believing in me, milord,” Dell said, in a tone that bespoke of baggage from a past that still weight heavy on his shoulders. While I wanted to know more about what had happened to him, this was neither the time nor place to ask. Nodding towards the Half-Dwarves busy summoning their Earth Elementals, I lowered my voice.

  “By the way, I was the one that asked Domenic to try the same trick we pulled on the Chaos Storm Alliance raid.” I said, in way of an apology for Domenic being so pushy on the topic.

  “I didn’t mean any offense-,” Assault Leader Dell began to say, as I cut him off.

  “That wasn’t a criticism,” I hurriedly said, but before I could explain more, a mini-army of five and a half foot tall Earth Elementals began forming around us.

  Immediately, the Devil Dogs began shouting for everyone to make a hole. At first, not everyone understood what the term meant, but it shortly became self-evident as a hole started forming down the middle of the pass. Those that didn’t get the concept were encouraged by a hard shove to move to the sides of the pass. Though, the biggest problem came with the mass of undead that Dell had placed as an emergency reserve behind the defense line. As Domenic and his remaining Half-Dwarves sent their Earth Elemental boulders rolling down the slope towards the advancing Orcs not thirty yards away and the noise level in the pass died down, I leaned in to Dell as I started my next Raise Zombie cast.

  “If this doesn’t work,” I said, nodding towards the mass of zombies around us. “We’ll just hit them with the undead and pull back.”

  “That’s a great plan, milord,” Assault Leader Dell said with a smile, “why didn’t I think of that.”

  “Thanks, Dell,” I said, letting out a bark of laughter as the veteran swordsman gave me a wink. “I needed that.”

  It was nice to see that the older man was able to loosen up around me. Having him be able to joke with me in situations like this, but still respect me as a leader was a talent few people had. As we both turned to look down the hill, Dell gave me a friendly clap on the shoulder.

  “I did too, milord,” the older man admitted, “I did too.”

  Unlike the Chaos Storm Alliance raid, the Orcs didn’t seem surprised at all by the boulders hurdling down the slope at them. As one, the Elite Orc Warriors in the front rank slammed their heavy Bronze Spiked Shields into the rocky ground. There was a loud series of bell-like clangs as each of the boulders were stopped cold. Without the extra velocity, the Earth Elementals’ transformation didn’t hit with the same punch. Instead of plowing over whole lines of enemies, they could only rise up to their trunk-like legs and hammer their stone fists into the braced shields.

  A handful of Orcs were brought down by the resulting melee as the Earth Elemental boulders continued to cascade into their front ranks. The effect of the assault was greatly reduced since it didn’t hit the horde’s lines all at once like a true avalanche crashing down the mountainside would have. Also, without the Earth Elementals intermixed within their formations, there was no easy way to bust up the shield wall. To make matters worse, the Orcs large iron weapons were perfect for beating against the stone bodies.

  Even with all of that said, it takes a while to hack apart that many Earth Elementals at once. I was just thinking this might be a valid option as I started raising my third zombie pet, when a dozen of the Earth Elementals just seemed to collapse into their base components. Domenic started bitching up a storm a second later as another group did the same thing. As my eyes searched the mass of Orcs trying to understand what was happening, Helgath slipped up next to me to point out what my eyes were missing.

  “Earth Shamans,” the Half-Orc said out loud, as Assault Leader Dell started in surprise at my soulmate’s sudden appearance. “They can break down an unprotected Earth Elementals into its base components at sixty yards.”

  “Well fuck,” I said to Dell, as soon as I caught sight of the group of level 55 Elite Orc Shamans that Helgath was pointing out. Their ornate skull staffs and elaborate painted masks were easy to pick out once you knew where to look. “This is going to be a long-ass day.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  (Evil Sandra and raid exiting Domenic’s valley)

  “Dammit all to hell,” Evil Sandra cursed in raid chat, as she led the raid at a run down the slope. “How the fuck did those dumb shits not stop them?”

  “What did you expect from a bunch of dumb NPCs?” Evad94 Gray asked, as he spat in disgust.

  “Obviously more than that,” she loudly agreed, before either of them could bitch about the situation more a massive explosion rang out from the front of Starfairy’s forces.

  The roar of the immense explosion and prece
ding shock wave momentarily silenced the bitching coming from the raid as everyone unbelievably watched the dark cloud of fire and smoke rise up into the air. None of them had seen anything like that before in real life or inside the game. As the debris began raining across the plateau and the two mountain passes, she heard a number of her raid mates’ excited comments as they speculated on the nature of the spell that caused such an impressive explosion. Those comments became even louder when they saw so many of Starfairy’s raid taken out by the blast.

  “What the hell was that?” Evad94 asked, as he sidled up next to Evil Sandra. “Was that from the Orcs or was that from Starjerk?”

  “Fuck if I know,” Evil Sandra said, in a tight voice. In the back of her mind, she was replaying the report from the Fatal Midnight guild leader about what had happened to his people.

  It was bad news whichever way you sliced it. If it was an Orc special ability, they might be able to steal it. If it was Starfairy’s, then that was a whole level of fuck that she didn’t even want to think about. Though, watching the other raid carrying their wounded up to the pass, she had a feeling this was an Orc ability and not a players. Studying the mass of Orcs forming up ahead of them at the bottom of the hill, Evil Sandra double-checked to make sure they were registering as proper allies. While their green highlighted names gave her a measure of relief, it wasn’t until she confirmed that the Orc’s were showing up as allies underneath the Alliances Tab her Character Sheet that finally made her relax her suspicious nature.

  “Alright people, don’t fuck this up,” Evil Sandra barked out in command, as she turned around to face the raid. “I know they’re just a bunch of NPCs but just remember this. If any of you dipshits does anything stupid, we’re all dead here.” Getting nods from everyone, she turned back around to face the horde of Orc as she checked her notes to make sure she had the word correct that they were supposed to call out. “Remember, the password we’re supposed to call out is, yani.”