by David M Zahn
Thomas and Jameson stood next to the altar frowning, but not moving, while Elaria, Rondo, and Iasz all stood only a couple feet away from me.
"That was a flashy entrance, even for you," Rondo said with a smile.
"Graard sacrificed himself for me," I responded frowning. "Didn't know the big guy had such a big heart."
"Heh," Iasz said in response. "Probably just wanted to throw you, and this was a good excuse. Fear not, Phoenix. He will respawn."
"Yeah, I hope so," I said worrying about what Thomas said earlier. "Thomas, we've got you outnumbered, and your elemental is dead. Give up."
Thomas looked back at me and smiled right as the floor clicked into place at the water's surface. All of us involuntarily stumbled before we caught ourselves. I would have been impressed with the design of this place if not for the fact that we were still in a battle.
"You think so, do you?" he asked in a tone that said he knew something I didn't. "Using it to break that pillar was clever, but you didn't kill it. I can still feel my connection to it even now."
"So, it's trapped down below where it will slowly be extinguished as the water rises," I retorted. "That's not going to do you much good up here."
"Are you not the Phoenix of Altria?" Thomas asked mocking me. "I thought you understood the nature of fire. His body is made of flame, you can't contain it with something like stone walls and ceilings. There are always cracks in those, you see, and where there are cracks..."
He trailed off, spreading his hands wide, showcasing the platform. Roughly two feet to my left, I saw an orange glow emanating from one of the cracks in the stone. The glowed burned brighter and in a flash, manifested into the elemental.
Well, that's just bullshit, I thought, scowling at it. What would it take to kill this thing? It didn't want to give me the chance to find out, because it smashed down right at me. I barely managed to jump backward out of the way.
"Fuck me, a little help here guys," I yelled to the others who were only feet away.
In response, Iasz summoned his water spell and blasted the elemental in the face. It howled in agony but didn't die.
"I don't think it's quite fair that they are ganging up on him like that," Thomas said calmly. "Do you think you could help my poor elemental out?"
"If you insist," Jameson said frowning at him.
Moving toward our group, she summoned a large two-handed greatsword with a skull near the hilt. Her eyes changed and began glowing blue as she cracked her neck casually. I always knew I didn't like that innkeeper, but this was just ridiculous.
Thinking quickly, I began casting Armor of the Firebird. Something told me that if she hit me with that blade I was going to want the extra protection. Rondo moved to intercept her while Iasz focused on the elemental.
Jameson slowly dragged her sword across the ground as if taunting our Rogue into attacking quickly. If this was her intent, it worked. Rondo leaped forward in a flash and tried to cross-slash her with both of his daggers. While he was quick, she was quicker and caught his blades with her giant one, swatting the rogue away as if swatting a fly. Rondo flew through the air and plunged into the lake with a splash while she kept walking toward us.
Honestly, I'd have been impressed if I wasn't so damn terrified. To me, her slow walk seemed more menacing than if she'd just approached us quickly. Elaria ran toward her, drawing a short sword, and I thought the elf was making the same mistake as Rondo. However, right as Jameson pulled her sword up to block and swing, Elaria ducked and rolled sideways, slashing the woman across the midsection with her much smaller blade.
Jameson grunted as a small cut opened up, and I saw a small amount of her HP fall away.
"Clever elf," Jameson said smiling. "There's not many who could put a cut on me like that."
At this point, I happened to see Eldertits finally win her contest of wills with Jackson in a gruesome fashion. She sliced down, cutting his shield arm clean off with her axe. The young warrior screamed. All heads snapped in his direction. Tits finished him off by burying her axe halfway down his face.
Blessedly, he disappeared a second later, but not before a furious Lilith fired a bolt of death energy at the barbarian. It hit Tits but hardly seemed to phase her, because she simply walked toward the other woman, and using one hand, grabbed her by the face. She flung the young necromancer face-first across the platform into the elemental.
Lilith caught fire almost instantly on impact, and if I thought Jackson's death was bad, it was nothing compared to this one. Right now, Eldertits looked like the monster, and these two young lovers looked like the victims, but then battle was a brutal affair, and if she wasn't doing it to them, they could easily be doing it to us.
Sensing an opportunity, Jameson slashed at Elaria who only snapped her attention back to the other women in the knick of time, avoiding decapitation. Jameson looked determined to prove Eldertits wasn't the only one capable of brutally destroying her enemies.
Finally, I finished my spell and unleashed it causing the familiar ethereal flames to wrap themselves around my body. I was now ready to join this party and help Elaria with Jameson. I summoned a fireball in my good hand and flung it at her imposing figure. It struck her in the back and did a small amount of damage to her HP, but it wasn't enough to even get her to turn around and face me.
Instead, she continued toward Elaria, reaching out and grabbing the ranger by the front of her clothes and dragging her close. With a wicked grin, she lifted up her sword using only one hand and slammed the butt of it down into Elaria's face. There was an audible crack as I heard her nose break.
Immediately, I started running forward, charging my Fist of the Phoenix Flame, but there was no way it was going to charge fast enough or that I would get there in time. She had Elaria in a death grip and looked to be toying with her.
Releasing the elf, Elaria fell to her knees. Jameson swung her sword down to deliver the coup de grâce. It was met by Eldertits' shoulder which slammed up into the edge of the blade and carried through into the surprised woman's face. Jameson staggered backward, losing her grip on the blade which was lodged deep in between Tits' neck and shoulder.
Tits staggered but didn't even fall down, with her health flashing dangerously near the bottom. Instead, with her eyes glowing red, she let out a guttural roar and ripped the blade out. Blood sprayed out from her shoulder and splattered against Jameson's face.
Ripping the blade out must have given her a bleeding status effect, because the small amount of health she had slowly started decreasing. Dismissing Fist of the Phoenix Flame, I began casting Cure on Eldertits.
Breathing heavily, she stared down Jameson while holding her axe in one hand and the other woman's great sword in the other. Jameson's health was in much better shape than hers, but the other woman was now weaponless. Well, at least that is what I thought, but then Jameson summoned a short sword, scowling at Tits.
"I'd offer to give yours back, but I'm kind of fond of it now," Eldertits said, sounding tired.
"It will make no difference," Jameson said flatly. "You're about to die anyway."
"Has anyone ever told you that you are just a straight up bitch?" Eldertits asked. "I would figure that someone who works as an innkeeper would be better with people, but you're just the worst. The first thing I'm doing when we get back to that shit hole of a tavern is stripping, and then I'm going to lay on your bars and drink all of your best wine."
"You talk too much," Jameson said. "All people talk too much."
At this point, I unleashed my cure spell on Eldertits. I saw the barbarian straighten up a little bit before I was hit in the chest by something sharp, knocking me off the platform. I fell into the water with a splash, and the cool water made the stabbing agony in my chest feel even worse.
My arm flailed around as I attempted to get above the surface of the water. During my life on Earth, I knew how to swim, but here in the game, I had no idea. I would have probably drowned if not for the fact that my good arm caught
the edge of the platform. Gripping the edge, I pulled myself up enough to allow myself to breathe.
Holding myself here, I examined my chest and saw that I had a large icicle sticking out of it. It was quickly melting in the lake water, and I would soon be left with just a hole in my chest. Quickly, I began to cast Cure with my bad hand. I could barely move the damn arm, but I could probably move it enough to cast the spell on myself. If I didn't, I didn't know how I was going to pull myself out of the water.
While I was waiting for the spell to charge, I surveyed the platform. Iasz was still slowly killing the elemental with a relentless stream of water. It wouldn't take long now. Eldertits and Jameson were locked in a physical confrontation, and I was shocked at how well Jameson's one short sword was doing against the larger weapons Eldertits wielded.
Meanwhile, Elaria and Thomas were running around the other end of the platform shooting at each other. Elaria was rapidly firing arrows at the old man while he kept summoning icicles from midair and shooting them at her.
Finally, I finished charging my spell, and with a desperate grunt, I opened my palm up toward my own body and cast the spell. Instantly I felt relief wash over my body as both the wound in my chest and my dislocated shoulder healed. Tentatively, I worked my arm around and found that while it was a bit stiff, I could move and use it without much pain.
Grasping the edge of the platform with both hands, I took a deep breath and heaved myself up. I pulled and pushed, just barely managing to drag myself up onto the side of the platform where I lay breathing heavily. This game would have been so much easier if I'd just picked a melee class.
Forcing myself to get up because I needed to help out either Elaria or Tits, I gritted my teeth and hauled myself to my feet. Tits was forcing Jameson back to the edge of the platform with a relentless barrage of attacks. Jameson was now gritting her teeth, and I could see her hate for the other woman in her eyes.
This fight would have gone on longer if not for that fact that when her back heel reached the edge, a dark hand reached out of the water and ripped her leg backward. Having one of her legs suddenly jerked out from underneath her caused the innkeeper to fall forward toward Eldertits, who smashed both the sword and the axe into her face.
Somehow, this didn't kill her, but the combined force of both weapons knocked her to the ground. The hand holding her ankle dragged her back, and Rondo used this to pull himself out of the water. When she was close enough to him, he plunged his dagger straight down into the back of her skull. This finally finished her off and caused her to vanish.
Unfortunately for him, this also caused him to lose his leverage, and he fell backward into the water again. He quickly resurfaced, holding on the edge of the platform. Eldertits vanished the sword and reached down to pick him up out of the water.
"Thanks, Tits," Rondo muttered.
"Thank you for messing up her balance. That bitch was tough," Eldertits replied.
"She shouldn't have knocked me away and allowed me to sneak up on her," Rondo said smiling. "Never lose sight of a rogue."
"Well, I'm keeping her sword," Eldertits said. "That thing is badass."
My attention snapped back to Thomas and Elaria as Elaria's body went flying, and she slid backward into Eldertits. Three icicles protruded from her chest as the last little bit of her health slipped away. Her body vanished a second later.
At the same time, Iasz finally finished off the elemental. He looked exhausted and satisfied as he turned toward Thomas with the rest of us.
"You'll pay for that one, Thomas," Rondo spat, "and for all the other people you've terrorized and killed."
"You're completely alone now, Thomas," I said, staring at the butler. "Besides, we've already contacted the guards back in Istria, and they dispatched an entire unit to detain all of you."
"If you're going to bluff me, you're going to have to do better than that," Thomas replied calmly. "You and I both know that all messaging is blocked."
"I opened up messaging within the ruins over an hour ago," I responded, smiling at him. "Right before we climbed up your little staircase of doom."
"You couldn't have, you don't have the..." he trailed off as I pulled out the statuette and waved it around causing his frown to deepen.
"Yeah, I found this artifact lying around down there," I said. "Got to admit, it's really useful. If you want to check, go ahead and message Martha to ask how she's doing in that cage. I'll wait."
We stood there, waiting for a couple of seconds while he must have been messaging someone, because a second later his complexion became manic, and he asked, "Do you realize what you have done?"
"Come on, dude," Eldertits said. "Even if Ryland hadn't found your little silencer, think about all the villagers that have died, including one of the guards from Istria that has seen who you are. They will surely spread the news about who you and what you are doing as soon as they respawn."
This was actually a very good point from the usually mischievous elf. How exactly did Thomas expect to get away with this unless he was able to capture and sacrifice all of us to the barrier? They had a good thing going here for a while with the silencing statuette, but once people were able to escape, the jig was up, even with messaging blocked.
Arrogance is often the undoing of even the most intelligent people, like Thomas. You simply can't plan for every contingency out there, even if you are the smartest person in the room.
"Well, at the very least, I can sacrifice one or two of you for ruining my plans," Thomas said, looking even crazier.
"Or here's an idea, and try to stay with me on this," Eldertits said. "you can sacrifice yourself to the barrier. You get to die like you want, and the rest of us don't have to ever look at your ugly face again. Everyone wins."
"It doesn't work that way," Thomas said. "Besides, I like the idea of taking a couple of you with me."
"Well, I tried," Eldertits said shrugging, "but now I guess I'll have to kick the shit out of you first."
Tits charged forward. Thomas stood there smiling, not moving. The barbarian slammed her axe toward the old servant, but the blade stopped about six inches from the man's face. It was like it hit an invisible barrier of some sort.
For a moment it looked like nothing was going to happen, then Tits was blasted backward with tremendous force. The axe skidded away from her and vanished while she flew off the platform and skipped across the water a couple of times before sinking.
"Got to give her credit, that was one hell of a swing," Thomas said. "That spell only reflects damage back."
"She'll live," I said, trying not to let this man know with how impressed I was with how easily he'd just blasted away our best fighter.
"Yeah, she's always bragging about how much of a pounding she can take," Rondo added, smiling.
"I have no doubt she's still alive," Thomas said calmly, "but she'll be out of action for a little bit. Which only leaves three of you picking on an old man."
Not wanting to let him recover, I quickly summoned a fireball and shot it at the old man. He slapped it harmlessly away. It landed in the water and sizzled out. Next, he flicked one of his hands out and sent a spray of tiny red creatures out.
Hundreds of tiny red ants landed on the platform between Thomas and the rest of us and began marching quickly towards our end of the platform. I blasted a fireball at them, and it killed several of them, but for every dead ant, there were twenty others crawling over its corpse.
"I don't have anything that can deal with these things effectively," I yelled to the others. "Iasz, what do you have left?"
"I'll handle these, but then I'm out of mana," Iasz said, calmly stepping in front of the rest of us and casting his water spell. Water blasted out from his hand like a fire hose, and just like a fire hose, he moved it back and forth washing them off into the lake beyond.
Thomas smiled and said, "I doubt your little goblin can outlast me."
Ants continued to materialize and spray from his hands toward the three of us.
Iasz was currently winning the battle, but judging by the look on his face, he was going to lose the war. His mana probably was damn near out already from his battle with the elemental.
"We've got to interrupt him," Rondo said to me. "You charge him from the right, and I'll charge him from the left side. When you reach him, do whatever you can to knock him off balance."
"What about that reflect thing he used against Tits?" I asked.
"Spells like that are usually only good for one use, and as far as I can tell, he hasn't recast it," Rondo said, spinning his knives around. "Let's do this, Ryland."
I started casting Fist of the Phoenix Flame, and both of us took off. He streaked up the left side of the platform while I ran up the right side. Once the two of us came level with Thomas, we changed trajectory and sprinted right at him.
Rondo reached him first and slashed diagonally with his left hand. Thomas ducked under the blade and lifted upright as Rondo's body was over the top of him. Rondo went flipping at me, and I barely managed to dodge to the right and continue on.
This left Thomas open as he didn't have enough time to recover from dodging Rondo to avoid me. I burst forward with Fist of the Phoenix Flame while he turned the endless spray of ants straight at me.
My fist connected with his chest, and the butler slid backward to the edge of the platform looking worse for wear. His bar of health dropped down to about a quarter of what it had originally been.
The spray of ants that landed on me immediately attacked my body with a savage ferocity, and I was soon swatting uselessly at the insects. Their bites hurt a lot more than I would have guessed.
Without throwing myself into the water, where I would most likely drown, there was only one thing I could think of doing to get these little pests off of myself. Touching my pants and my shirt with one of my hands I ignited the clothes I had on.
With the boost in resistance from the Armor of the Firebird, I was calculating that this wouldn't hurt too badly. The fire slowly spread out on my clothes from where I initially touched my pants and tingled on my skin as it spread across my body. There was a small amount of pain, but it really wasn't too bad, and my health only dropped slightly.
