by Jason Cheek
Even with the force of fifty players Evil Sandra had taken with her, there still must have been over two thousand players in this area alone. Everywhere I looked there were ranged classes clustered around in groups attacking the fortifications with everything they had. They were atop the ruined battlements on the wall behind us, standing atop the numerous left over boulders from the siege, or in the open field battling elementals as they fought to breach the last defensive wall. It was truly an awe inspiring sight.
“Head straight out a hundred feet and then cross left in front of the assault line,” Sub-Leader Chuzedros’s hard voice reported in group chat. “There is a direct path to the western wall from there.”
Mike led us past the horde of players as massive lightning bolts, immense fiery balls, and glowing bolts flew over our heads as thick as flies around a sorghum mill. You’d have thought that there would’ve been a break in the constant barrage but there never was. There were just so many people casting and firing their individual attacks. As we slowly made our way to the virtual line in the field that divided the melee classes’ ongoing battle against the elementals and the ranged slash support classes’ rear line, we were able to skirt the edge of the main battle and make our way to the gauntlet’s western side.
Surprisingly enough, this proved to be safe even for a group in stealth like us. Even if, it felt like crouching low in the middle of a gun range and hoping not to catch a stray round in the face. While unlikely at this stage in the game, we were still basically one hit away from being the “golf ball picker cart” at a driving range. None of us breathed a sigh of relief until we’d started making our way along the western edge of the gauntlet.
Nonetheless, this gave us a perfect view of the ongoing siege and the magic being used. I could now see the lightning strikes were actually coming from an AOE. The dark storm clouds above the battlements were actually numerous individual AOE attacks stitched together to create a massive electrical storm of immense proportions. At least, immense in the sense of an AOE spell.
On the hundred-yard long, open field before the fortress’ walls, more direct types of spells were being used. Jagged balls of lighting that struck out bolts of pure energy at everything in its path, three-yard wide wind-blade tornadoes that left swaths of destruction across the field, weird water spouts, acid balls, and glowing missiles of all types. These were all targeting the earth and water elementals that were constantly entering the battlefield.
The closer we got to the walls, the more we saw odd piles of rocks that seemed to be littering the field everywhere. At first, I thought these were some sort of odd defensive structures that had been set up to block the advance of siege engines, but as I watched the battle unfold, I realized these were the leftover detritus from the stone elementals when they died. Eyeing one of the closer piles of odd stone, I realized they were almost like a mineral node that you could mine from as I got that odd, persistent desire to whip out my mining pick to give it a go. Knowing how dangerous that would be, I consciously forced myself to continue past without trying to see if there was anything mineable.
No matter how you looked at it. I realized Domenic had done an amazing job holding out against the Chaos Storm Alliance’s ongoing siege. I had to give him kudos for managing to hold on as long as he had with the cards he’d been dealt. That, and he was supposedly the last fortress on the Isolde Line probably didn’t hurt matters either.
Luckily, the casters and trebuchets were focusing their attacks on the center of the wall where the main gate was located, or our approach would have been painful to say the least. I’d at first thought that was simply because that was the location they’d broken through all of the previous defensive fortifications, but as we closed to within twenty-yards of the base of the defensive wall, I quickly learned that wasn’t an accident a second later.
“Don’t move, Chuzedros!” I urgently commanded, as I froze in place and held my arms out to stop my teammates from advancing any further.
“You have no right to tell me what to do, halfling!” the Dark Elf woman spat in outrage, as she looked at me in disgust. Before, she could blast me further, Mike’s voice cracked like a whip.
“Sub-Leader Chuzedros!” The female Dark Elf’s mouth slammed shut as Mike gave her a hard look. “Weren’t you there when I informed Sub-Leader Zuvnabod of Lord Ironwolf’s status?”
“That was for Sub-Leader Zuvnabod,” the woman said, as her upper lip curled in disgust. “I am the right hand of the Head of Midnight and-“
“You will follow my commands!” Mike stormed back, his voice dripping with malice as he began stalking towards his subordinate. “You know that order was meant for everyone!” Before he’d could stalk forward, my hand slapped down on the back of his neck.
“I said, don’t fucking moo-“ I froze as Mike spun around and slapped my hand away in the blink of an eye. By the time I caught up to what he was doing, he’d captured my wrist and pulled me forward to break my balance. At the same time, he’d somehow managed to draw his blade and slip the point under my helm’s guard to prick the back of my neck.
“Not the best time for fucking with me, Jay,” Mike said coldly under his breath. “Shadow Assassins only respect strength.”
“If you want to be slaughtered by the large raid of rogues waiting to scale the wall,” I said, in a tired voice. “Then be my guest, but let the rest of us back up so we’re not caught in the middle of your little snit.”
Directly in front of us were around fifty to a hundred rogues waiting to scale the wall. Looking above, I could see another thirty or so currently in the process of climbing the three ropes that had been secured on the wall above. Obviously, the Chaos Storm Alliance was already putting their extra guards to good use.
“What rogues?” Kenzie nervously demanded, as the Devil Dogs and Neristhana hurriedly drew their weapons, while Helgath repositioned herself between me and the closest enemy newfar. That placed her nearly twenty-yards in front of Sub-Leader Chuzedros, whose face noticeably paled as she realized that meant she was surrounded by enemies that she couldn’t even see. Talk about an unpleasant surprise for the unhappy woman, I thought, with a grin.
“That can’t be possible,” Sub-Leader Chuzedros muttered in a voice full of denial, as my eyes slid to Helgath’s black, leather-clad body.
On the flip side, that meant Helgath had somehow acquired the skill at the same time that I had or she was actively reading their location directly from my mind. Either way, it was cool as hell, I thought, as pride filled my chest at my soulmate’s amazing abilities. Instantly, her thoughts came to my mind.
‘Directly read them from your thoughts.’ I felt the pure delight welling up in her heart from my unspoken praise as her pointy teeth peaked out between her smiling lips. ‘But, doing so gave me the same skill, Perception I.’
‘Well done!’ I sent back, as Mike pulled me upright and give me a brotherly clap on the shoulder.
“Sorry about that, Jay,” he said under his breath, the embarrassment clear in his tone. Giving his subordinate a look that said this discussion wasn’t over, he continued in a voice that brooked no argument. “Sub-Leader Chuzedros, you will follow Lord Ironwolf’s orders as if they were my own. Is that clear?”
“Sire,” she replied stiffly, as her eyes wildly searched around for the enemy that she couldn’t see.
“How do you want to run this, Jay?” Mike asked, unhesitatingly passing leadership of the team to me. This was something that we were both extremely familiar with. For us, it had never been about ego. We respected each other for being smart, strategic players and were comfortable passing the baton of command back and forth with ease. While I appreciated the gesture and the respect that simple act implied, I didn’t want to take the lead on this … at least, not combat-wise.
“I’ll play support,” I said, thinking quickly. Mike gave me an odd look, before suddenly “ah’ing” in understanding. “Sub-Leader Chuzedros, can you Shadow Step behind Helgath?” As she blinked beh
ind the Half-Orc in a swirl of shadows, I messaged my soulmate. ‘Can you get a yard behind the rear most rogue and point at them?’
“Can any of you see what Helgath is pointing at?” I asked, as the Half-Orc followed my orders. At first no one said anything. I was just calling Helgath back, when Mike sucked in a sharp breath.
“I just got the skill, Perception I,” Mike said incredulously, before he saw what we were up against. “Damn, we have company … I mean lots and lots of company.”
“I can see them now too,” Neristhana reported, as she moved to put herself between me and the enemy.
“Well, shit,” Kenzie unhappily spat, as she looked back at Zhou and Darkhorse to confirm they couldn’t see the enemy either. “What the fuck! Why can’t we see them?”
“What’s your Spirit at?” I asked Mike, as I pulled up the in-game Wiki for an explanation of the various Attributes.
“Eighty-six here,” Mike said, as his brows furrowed in thought.
“Helgath has a hundred and five, I have a hundred and seventy-seven,” I said, before pointing at the Devil Dogs.
“Twenty-four,” Kenzie unhappily said, as Zhou and Darkhorse reported thirty-one and thirty-four respectively.
“Forty-three,” Sub-Leader Chuzedros grudgingly reported, obviously unhappy to share out that level of personal detail to people who were essentially strangers. Unconcerned, I nodded to Neristhana.
“One hundred and twenty,” she stated without hesitation. Seeing everyone’s surprised looks, she casually shrugged. “Master Traders need to be able to read their clients to make the best trade.”
“You’re thinking it’s a Wisdom issue?” Mike asked, as he pulled up the same Wiki article. “Errr, I mean, a Spirit issue?”
“More or less,” I agreed, as I read through everything that Spirit included.
“Besides increasing the regeneration speed of heal and mana, it says it also influences the ability to see through illusions and increases perception,” Mike read out loud to the group.
“So, what you’re saying is that I need to get my Spirit up to eighty-six to see get the Perception ability?” Kenzie exclaimed unhappily.
“Somewhere between forty-four and eighty-six,” I agreed, while ignoring the look of outrage on her face. I figured Kenzie’s low numbers were due to her physical disabilities in real life as I thought back to Thomas’ comment that she’d lost both of her legs in that IED, aka: improvised explosive device, attack.
“Who would have thought that …” Zhou muttered, giving Darkhorse a meaningful look. They were both calculating how this would mess with their currently planned build, but realizing they needed to increase their perception ability in the game no matter what. It could literally mean the difference between life and death for a rogue.
“That still doesn’t answer how we’re going to pull this off,” Kenzie groused, as I caught Mike’s eye.
“Mike, Neristhana, and Helgath will lead the attacks, while everyone else follows,” I nodded to the male rogue. “With Darkhorse playing the floater.” Turning around, I began falling back to a hollow I’d seen earlier. It wasn’t deep, but should keep me somewhat hidden from the enemies around us.
“Where in the hell do you think you’re going?” Kenzie angrily called after my retreating back.
“He’s going to play healer while we take the brunt of the attack,” Mike knowingly said, as he nodded to Sub-Leader Chuzedros and got into position.
“You’re such a woman, Kenzie?” I said with a laugh. “You miss out on the action and you complain. You get the action you want and you complain. Seriously, is there any way to make you happy?”
“Fuck you, Star!” Kenzie shot back at me, as everyone chuckled at our back and forth. There wasn’t any true anger in her tone, it was just the normal joking back and forth of two friends who’d gotten used to each other’s idiosyncrasies.
“Well, if that’s all it will take to make you happy,” I said with a shit-eating grin, “I’m game if you are.”
“Ah … umm,” Kenzie stuttered, looking flustered and unsure of how to respond to my offer.
“Gotcha,” I said with a laugh, as Kenzie half-heartedly flipped me off.
“Okay then, wait for my call to attack,” I said, turning serious once again. By now, the line of enemies waiting to scale the wall had probably shrunk to around twenty. Getting down on my stomach, I scrunched down into the hollow the best I could, before quickly casting a Regeneration on everyone and shouted, “Go!”
Even as the words were leaving my lips, I was triggering Stealth. The situation was bad, to say the least. But, the side that could enter and exit stealth at will and that was also backed by a healer gave us a major advantage. So much so, that I thought we could handle this as long as I wasn’t discovered. Yeah, that was the other catch. I still didn’t dare have my name pop-up in anyone’s system windows.
All of a sudden, six forms popped out of stealth. There was a flurry of commotion as Helgath, Neristhana, and Mike re-stealthed while the rest of my friends attacked. Their targets collapsed in a heap dead as doornails while the follow-up Backstabs were being triggered. As Sub-Leader Chuzedros, Zhou, Kenzie, and Darkhorse faded back into the shadows, Helgath, Neristhana, and Mike were already attacking their next targets.
The operation for the first four rounds went smooth as hell. We’d played to our strengths by keeping our teams with the people they were familiar with. Still, you didn’t have twelve people disappear from your raid without raising any flags. On the sixth round of attacks, the shit hit the fan. As soon as Mike, Helgath, and Neristhana attacked, it turned into a complete shitstorm as thirteen rogues popped out of stealth.
Even so, my people only took around one to two hundred points of damage. Mostly, that was due to Helgath, Mike, and Neristhana being able to see them coming. It completely removed the ability for any of the enemy rogues to pull off a Sneak Attack. A few of the more skilled players were able to pull off a Backstab, but that was mostly nullified by the Holy Shields my team were rocking. That brought the attacks down to straight melee damage from their attack combos, most of which was completely healed with one tick of their Regeneration buff. By then, the enemy rogues were under attack by the rest of our team as they joined the fight. While all that was going on, I was hitting Mike, Helgath, and Neristhana with a Holy Shield again as both rogue groups went toe-to-toe.
There was little to no permanent damage being done to my teammates as I kept their health topped off and their shields up, while the enemy was quickly being whittled down one at a time. Mike and Sub-Leader Chuzedros were death incarnate. Between their Shadow Assassin skills that allowed them to blink behind their enemies and get off an extra Backstab with their special attack combos, and high levels, it was nearly impossible for the Chaos Storm Alliance rogues to stand against them.
My people weren’t being any slouches either. Neristhana’s hand axe easily cleaved through the enemies light armor as Helgath leapt onto her targets like a spider monkey on crack. That’s also when I learned my girl’s pointy teeth weren’t just for show as she bit one guy’s nose completely off his face along with half his face. It was gruesome to say the least. As several of the nearest players looked stunned at the chunk of flesh hanging out of the Half-Orc’s bloody mouth in horror, my friends finished them off without hesitation. In less than a minute, the fight was brought to its conclusion with all of the waiting, enemy rogues being completely taken out.
I had to give it to Zhou, Darkhorse, and Kenzie for not batting an eye at my soulmates choice of attacks. Hell, she even got a look of respect from Sub-Leader Chuzedros and Mike, which gave me a peek into the level of brutality that my friend was playing at for his Shadow Assassin Nightmare quest. Not that it was particularly surprising being that he’d earned the title of the Head of Midnight. Still, I tucked that little piece of information away for whenever I was dealing with his people in the future.
The fighting didn’t stop there. As soon as the last enemy was taken d
own, Helgath rushed for the dangling rope with Neristhana a half-step behind her, while Mike calmly took the lead. With clear and concise commands, he had Kenzie, Zhou, and Darkhorse get into position at the bottom of each rope and swapped Sub-Leader Chuzedros as the floater. I wasn’t angry at the change, it was the better call now that I’d seen the Shadow Assassin’s fighting style. Besides that, it was the way Mike and I normally played off of one another’s abilities.
In the time it had taken for Mike to rearrange the teams, Helgath and Neristhana had scurried up the rope and had reached the first rogue making his way up to the top of the wall. Each woman had their own unique style of attack. The Half-Orc just leaped onto her target’s back with her daggers leading the way. The woman was so surprised that she lost her grip and plummeted back to the ground with a shriek. Without even batting an eye, Helgath leaped off her back to grab the rope as she continued scurrying up.
Neristhana, on the other hand, got up underneath her target and gripped the rope with her flexible feet. Using that for her support, she smoothly drew her axe and drove it into the male rogue’s back as the man cried out in agony, before the Gnomeling yanked him free of the rope. The move was smooth as hell. She’d used the support from her feet and the spike on the axe to peel the rogue away while he was stunned from the surprise attack. Instead of repositioning herself, she arched her back and let the momentum flip her around to take the place on the rope where the rogue had been just a second before. In that process, she’d managed to sheath her hand axe at her waist and was already climbing for the next rogue in line.
At the same time that was going on, Mike used his Shadow Step to appear behind the rogue on the middle rope. His blades flashed in a double Sneak Attack that killed the player instantly. With a graceful leap, he hooked the rope with an elbow as his feet folded the rope over one of his boots as his other stood on top of it easy peasy. He did it so smoothly that it looked like he was standing on the ground and not six yards up in the air hanging from a rope.
