Sure, they disappeared when the creatures did, but it almost seemed like somehow they were still there on her skin. Like she was tainted with the blood of those she fought.
She truly dreaded going up against the elves. They were very close to human and the thought of killing one was almost making her sick to her stomach.
Not that she could tell the group that. At least an ax would mean she could have a foot or two of distance between them when fighting. Hopefully, that would help.
But in the meantime, here they were off to rescue a dwarven kidnap victim. If this were the real world, of course it would come next, simply because a life was at stake. Here, that wasn’t an issue. It didn’t matter when they showed up to save him, he’d still be right there waiting.
So would the elves.
Nika really hoped she was right about the whole game-level thing. She wasn’t looking forward to a reenactment of their near failure.
Once they selected the rescue quest, their maps started pointing the way. Now, since this mission had a definite location, a small area on the map appeared with a bit of yellow tint. That would be the area where they would find the young dwarf.
“So, how old is this dwarf?” she asked, looking over to Dean.
He shrugged. “The miner looked pretty old, so I’d say upper teens or older. Shouldn’t be a child.”
At least that was good. If they could get him out and he was old enough to get back to town on his own that would help. If he was a child, they wouldn’t have a choice but to escort him back.
The yellowed area drew near, and they stood on its outskirts after only fifteen minutes of uneventful hiking. Before them, through the last remaining trees hiding them from the clearing, they could see the situation.
Three elves were standing before a large entrance leading into a hillside. The entrance inside was ringed with stone and an overly large wooden door was standing open. The elves weren’t concerned about anyone being behind them as they were far more intent on what was going on inside the cavern.
“Yo!” One of them yelled. “Any luck yet?”
“No,” a voice called back, barely loud enough to hear. “The little rat keeps leading us in circles.”
“Then bring him out here so we can talk to him about that,” the first elf said, his hands forming fists.
Nika motioned them all back into the woods. Elves had very good hearing, and they didn’t want to tip them off that they were there.
Once enough distance was between them to muffle their conversation, Nika turned to the group. “Okay, so at least five elves. Three outside and two inside, but probably a lot more.”
Evan nodded. “We should probably take a stroll around the perimeter of the clearing just to make sure there aren’t any left out here as lookouts. Wouldn’t want them coming up from behind and trapping us between them.”
“We could split up, and each go a different way, then meet up back behind the cave,” Ash suggested.
“Or I could do a quick fly around and meet you all back here,” Louella said.
“No,” Evan said.
The girl’s face fell.
Nika started to say something, but Evan beat her.
“Look if you think I don’t trust you, you are right, but that isn’t the only reason I don’t want you to go off by yourself. Even at regular game level, elves can be hard to beat. I don’t think any of us should try facing them on their own.” He paused, then looked at Ash. “Truthfully, I’d feel better if we all stuck together on this one.”
Ash shrugged and nodded. “You know the game better than I do. Lead and I’ll follow.”
Nika stepped up. She liked Evan, but she didn’t want there to be any question about who the leader of this team really was. “I second sticking together, though your suggestion was a good one, Ash.”
She glanced back at the trees behind them. The bad thing about elves was that they were sneaky. You would never hear one coming until their knife was in your back.
They circled around the clearing, which luckily was a small one. The elves inside the cavern had still not emerged, and the ones outside still focused their attention inside.
“Should we try to draw one away at a time?” Ash whispered, her voice almost dying on the breeze.
Nika looked to Evan who lifted one shoulder.
“It couldn’t hurt,” he said. “Even if it fails, we’ll still have the same numbers we’d have if we barged right in.”
Ash swallowed, picked up a pine cone from the forest floor, squared her shoulders, and with a last look at Nika threw the small missile straight to hit one of the elves in the back of his shoulder.
Whirling around, his eyes scanned the tree area that gave them cover. As he was standing in the bright sunlight and they were in a darkened forest, even with his elven-enhanced eyesight, no way would he be able to pick them out.
After scanning the trees, his eyes traveled up the trees to the higher branches, still searching. When he took a couple of steps their way, the other two turned to him.
“Where are you going?” One of them asked. The only difference in them was the color of vest they were wearing.
“Something hit me,” the first one said, bending over to pick up the pinecone. He motioned around at the trees. “No way that hit me by accident. Someone threw it.”
Red vest gave a half-hearted shrug. “Probably a squirrel. They do that, you know.”
“Duh,” the other said. He was sporting a tan leather vest over the same style leggings. The third elf, who had so far remained silent, was in a dark brown. All colors that would blend with the forest when needed.
"You two stay here and keep guarding the entrance," tan vest said. "I'll go check it out just to be on the safe side."
The other two shrugged then turned their focus back on the entrance. Could it really be this easy?
They waited until he walked between a couple rows of trees and then hit him with everything they had. Soon they'd know if it was enough.
He didn't even have time to shout out a warning as his health bar went to zero in a matter of a split second. Good, these were your normal elves, Nika thought.
They decided to wait to see if the other two would grow curious as to the whereabouts of their companion, but they seemed oblivious. Ash picked up another pine cone and hefted it in her hand, looking to Nika with a questioning raised eyebrow.
Nika shrugged, then nodded. Why the hell not? If the program was going to let them distract and divide the elves so easily, it would be silly not to take advantage of it.
This time the small missile hit the brown vested elf in the back of the head.
“Ow,” he said, whirling his head around. “That hurt. We really need to do something about those damn squirrels.”
“Be my guest,” Red Vest said, then paused. “Say, did Raul ever get back?”
“No,” said Brown Vest. “I’ll take a look for him while I’m at it. We really aren’t supposed to leave our posts here. I’ll give him the standard warning about that when I find him.”
“You do that,” Red Vest said with a smirk. At least he seemed to grasp that the elf was going to play superior to the other while he was guilty of the same disorderly crime.
Brown must have recognized the smirk for what it was because he stopped and turned back. “Hey, it isn’t disobeying orders if I’m checking on a missing comrade, right?”
Red Vest sighed but nodded. “Nah, you’re good. And if you happen to kick some squirrel butt while you’re at it, who’s to be any the wiser?”
Brown smiled. “Right. I’ll be right back.”
Unfortunately for him, he only made it a few steps further than Tan Vest. Now that it was down to one elf standing guard, they were out of options. Time to go on the offensive for real.
If their luck continued, maybe they could have him dealt with before the elves in the cavern made it back out. Nika didn’t like the fact that their map wasn’t showing the numbers of enemies within the cavern. It must onl
y work on the level that you were currently on. Above ground or below. Which meant they were blind as to the enemy’s forces.
“What’s the battle plan, boss?” Dean asked, sliding into place at Nika’s side.
"Take out the last guard, get inside, and rescue the dwarf's son." She just looked at him. "None of which will probably be as simple as it sounds."
"Yeah, I've noticed that about this game," he said, grinning. "But, hey, things are starting to look up. At least now we can take out elves."
Sure, Nika thought, at least when facing them one at a time. She wasn't at all so sure about facing them in mass like they were about to within the cavern. As far as she could remember there were supposed to be six elves within the cave. But that was based on a party of three and the game adjusted for numbers. Now that their party had five members, she figured the number of elves would be almost double that. It wouldn't surprise her at all to find themselves facing a dozen elves inside.
Add to that the problem of rescuing and protecting a dwarf, and it was enough to worry her. It wouldn't be so bad if this wasn't a make it or break it quest. Dean needed that long bow in order to be of any help at all against the orcs. The bow he had now just wasn't powerful enough to pierce their thick hides far enough to do any real damage.
Dean fist bumped her arm. "Don't look so glum. We got this."
"I don't think a pine cone will work this time," Ash said. "So how do we get rid of the last guard without letting the elves inside know?"
Louella was biting her lip. "What if I blinded him first?" She asked, thoughtfully. "That would give you all time to get to him and hopefully he wouldn't fully realize he was under attack until it was too late."
"It's as good a plan as any," Nika said, looking to Evan who nodded. "Just be sure to wait until we've all turned away before casting your Sun Ray."
The plan was a decent one, especially as these particular elves didn't seem to rate too high of an artificial intelligence score. The last elf quickly followed his comrades into the cyber nothingness, leaving nothing but gold in their pockets. Damn, she'd hoped for a cool item or two. That should start happening very soon.
Standing around the entrance, she looked over at Dean. "Do you hear anything? We need to know how far in they are and how many we might be facing." Really any information at all at this point would be helpful. Going in blind wasn't on her list of fun things to do.
Dean looked startled. "Why are you asking me?"
"Because you happen to be a wood elf, Dork," Ash said, not unkindly. "Of the game species we have here, your hearing would be the best."
He blushed. "Oh, yeah, I knew that." Dean stepped up to the cavern entrance and leaned into the darkness. He stayed there for a full minute before withdrawing his head. "They must be pretty deep in. I can't hear a thing."
"Okay, next problem," Ash said. "Caves are dark, and we are going to need some kind of light." She glanced quickly at Louella. "Not super bright light, just enough to see our way through the cave."
The pixie grinned at her. "Something like this, maybe?" She pulled a small lantern out of her inventory and held it out. "It's a standard pixie accessory."
"Will one be enough?" Dean asked.
Louella shrugged. "If I go first, it should light the way well enough. And once we get close to the elves, we should be able to see by their lights. Elves don't have any super night vision that I'm aware of."
Nika nodded. "That's right, they don't. Plus, they really don't like going underground, so they are likely to keep the passageway pretty well lit. We'll probably only need the lantern for a few yards into the entrance."
The cavern's entrance led into a fairly large room. All five of them fit fairly comfortably inside. Not enough room to really fight, if it came to that, but large enough to allow them to get their bearings and let their eyes grow accustomed to the cave's darkness. It was quite a shock after coming from full daylight outside.
From this room, two smaller entrances branched out, leading deeper into the cave. Nika looked at both of them, trying to determine which one would yield the elves and their kidnapped dwarf.
Dean did his part by listening at each tunnel, but there was nothing to go by.
"Please don't anyone suggest splitting up," Nika said. "It isn't going to happen."
Dean let out a sigh of relief. "That's good to know," he said. "Not that I would mind going off with one of the cute women folk into a deep dark cavern, but the thought of just two or three of us running into a dozen elves makes it sound a lot less fun."
Ash punched him in the arm. "More excitement than you'd have if the tunnel turned up empty, Dork."
He pulled an affronted face. "I'll have you know, I'm quite charming in the dark."
She laughed, then gestured at Louella's lantern. "It's a damn good thing we have light, then."
Louella lifted the light to shine it on each break in the wall, but the two entrances seemed to be identical. "So, which way do we try first?"
"Eeny, meeny," Nika said, looking at each in turn. "Right? Sound good to everybody?"
"Fifty-fifty chance either way. I say we go for it," Evan said, signaling Louella forward.
Nika felt better when the rest of the party looked to her for confirmation before following Evan. She hated feeling that way, but her trust meter was at an all-time low when it came to men. Even Evan.
The inside of the tunnel grew more and more damp and dark the farther they got from the entrance. There were enough bends and turns in the pathway that it was impossible to see any light ahead of them. Which could change around a single bend. And Nika had been wrong about the lit passageways. The elves were keeping all their available light with them, it seemed.
They walked silently, not wanting to risk alerting the elves that they were coming. Of course, once they rounded the last corner between them, their lantern would do that for them. Unfortunately, the light was a necessity. For one thing, Dean was already having to walk stooped over to avoid any low hanging rocks. He just might be rethinking the intelligence of adding those few last inches to his height in the character creation module.
“Catch him!” Came a loud shout from the tunnel ahead, followed by the sound of quickly falling footsteps.
Thinking quickly, Nika grabbed the lantern from Louella and placed it on the ground, then ushered everyone back the way they had come until they were almost out of its range. Hopefully, this would give them the light they needed to attack the elves while keeping them just out of sight.
But it wasn’t an elf that rounded the corner first. It was a dwarf running full speed. He passed the light without the slightest of hesitation and kept running. Unfortunately, that meant that he was more than a bit shocked when his body collided into Evan’s furry one.
The dwarf hit hard enough that it landed him on his rump, just as two elves rounded the corner in hot pursuit. They did pause at the sight of the lantern, and that gave the party just the opportunity they were hoping for.
Dean let loose with a double shot into each of them, and Nika realized she’d been holding her breath when their health bars dropped. They didn’t drop a great deal, but enough to know that they weren’t invincible.
Ash cast two fire spells at the same time Louella blasted them with her area nature attack. Nika was relieved that she hadn’t used earthquake. Probably not the safest of spells to cast while underground.
Once the distance attacks had the elves down to about a quarter life each, Nika and Evan rushed in for the final close combat kill.
It was all over within minutes.
“Congratulations. You have reached level seven,” the system said. Nika quickly nodded her head to skip the rest of the message. She would look it up in her game diary later when she wasn’t listening for the sounds of more elves coming their way.
Surprisingly, the only sound of footsteps was running away from them, back toward the entrance. The dwarf wasn’t taking any chances. Then again, they might not look much like a rescue party to him.
What with the man-tiger and all.
Louella looked to Nika and at her nod, took off after him. Flying, she was by far the fastest of them. The only problem was that she took the lantern with her. Which left them in utter darkness.
“Okay,” Dean said. “So maybe she didn’t think that quite all the way through?” His voice was low, almost a whisper. “It would have been nice if the little guy had stuck around to fill us in on what’s ahead of us.”
Nika agreed. “At least we’ll know if the elves are headed this way. We’ll see their light way before they see us.” She hoped.
After a couple of minutes without any noise from either direction, they decided to take their time and head back toward Louella. A few minutes later they could hear cursing, both male and female.
“I’ll not go, you blasted winged abomination!”
“Yes, you will, Shorty.” That from Louella. “They saved your hide and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let you run off without us going back to help them. They wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for you.”
“And I’m supposed to be taking your word for that am I?” the male voice said, surprisingly deep. “The only ones who know about this cavern are the elves and the dwarves, and you—whatever you are—are neither. How am I to know you don’t just want to capture me yourselves?”
“Because your father sent us to rescue you,” Nika said as they rounded the last dark corner into the lantern’s light. “And maybe a little because we saved your ass back there.”
The dwarf, tangled up in some kind of vine, whirled around at the sound of Nika’s voice, then stopped dead in his tracks. His eyes grew wide with wonder as he stared at Nika. Then they slowly traveled down the entire length of her, slowing drastically when they hit her long, slender, and very naked legs.
“Merciful heavens, I’ve been saved by a goddess herself,” he said. He tried taking a step toward her, but got tangled further in the vine and fell. Looking up at Louella with an indignant expression, he said, “Can’t you take off these cursed restraints now? Ye have my word I’ll not run from a lady such as her.”
Gaia's Rebirth Box Set Page 17
