by Jeff Sproul
“She’s got a point,” said Riley. “Out in the open like this, I doubt recon would be too useful. But in a cave, it’d be perfect.”
“Fine, I’ll just...hold back my magnificent powers,” said Chase.
As the rest of the group reached the top of the ridge, they could all see the giant, about a thousand feet away. It held a large blue-crystal club on its right shoulder. It slowly lumbered around, seemingly in no particular direction, but it was definitely looking around.
“It’ll make a good first kill,” said Carla. “Let’s go!”
The fight with the giant was verging on fifteen minutes. With each fight, Seth’s and Laura’s groups gained a stronger cohesion as they became a single functioning party. They were defeating bosses faster, and with less damage to themselves.
“Watch out for the Brute’s breath!” Laura called, as her original body stood a distance away from the fight. Her copies were attacking the monster’s feet and legs, whatever they could reach. She was constantly moving her copies around, since the monster could easily one-shot her duplicates with many of its attacks.
‘Brute of the Crystal Fields’ was the name of their quarry. Its health was at about ten percent and dropping fast.
The giant easily stood seven-stories tall. Its movements were slow, but powerful. It swung its large crystalline cudgel, which dug deep gouges into the sand and patches of nearby crystals. It leaned down and opened its mouth. A powerful wind, imbued with sharp particles, came billowing from between its teeth.
The Brute swept its head in a slow circle, sending the cutting blue-tinted air across the area.
Todd was quick to act, pulling mounds of sand into the air but all he could do was pile it, since none of the sand was sticking together all that well. Regardless of the limitations of the blue sand, it created a workable barricade from the Brute’s attack. He was able to protect Erica, Brenda, Carla, and himself.
Laura’s copies remained close to the monster’s feet, since they had to attack mostly from melee range. It was only when the giant stomped, that they would need to scatter, which kept them out of most of the giant’s attacks.
As the Brute assailed the section of the battlefield that housed Todd, Erica, Brenda and Carla, several red-energy canisters launched from small spider-bots. The canisters glowed with a soft blue aura, along with the deep crimson of their energy potential. Once they made contact with the giant, they exploded.
Chase had spread three of his spider-bots around and given them mortar capabilities, while still retaining control over the scout-bot he’d left near the portal. He found that he had to keep some of his stamina in reserve so that he could still run around the battlefield and dodge the boss’s attacks.
Riley kept mobile on the battlefield. He never let the boss face his direction for too long, before he repositioned himself. He constantly threw his cords out and stole blue-essence from the monster. Almost everyone was sporting blue-glowing eyes because of him.
Even Chase’s robots had their own soft blue auras.
Riley looked around and noticed Seth in a crouch. He sent his spike over and boosted him up. Seth had built-up his levels rather quickly since he’d died. He’d focused his equipment on power-increasing, while placing his own stats in endurance and stamina. This way, no matter what his tier-one powers ending up being, he’d be able to change his gear and meet the needs of his new powers, with whatever stats benefited them the most.
Over the last two weeks, they’d spent a lot of time becoming closer. Seth had already been loosely acquainted with Laura and her team, and vice versa. It was only after the Saros incident, along with their mutual goal of bringing down the Weevil, that they began to spend increasing amounts of time together.
Laura had become the team-leader. Her powers gave her a clear eye around the battlefield, and her clones appeared to be more intelligent than Chase’s robots. While controlling twenty different copies of herself at any given time, would still prove hectic, she was able to keep herself disconnected from the battle and kept a close eye on the entire situation. If a group-decision needed to be made during the battle, she was the first and final call. If she said retreat, they would all run. If she said attack, they’d all run on her command.
That was one of the things Riley enjoyed so much about all of them. They were all in this together, as a team. Sure, they were all mildly greedy when it came to personal loot, some more than others, but no one was going to promote themselves at the cost of one of the others.
This was the comradery that he’d lacked when he played as Radiance. It was the same thing he’d felt when he teamed up with Wendy in the beginning of the game, but due to always changing members of his party and grouping with so many people—who were just as selfish and egotistical as he was; he’d lost that sense of true friendship and month by month, he’d even felt himself growing further away from Wendy, until the White Weevil took it all away. Well, perhaps not everything. Despite no-longer teaming up with her, he still counted Warcry as a friend. But she had her own guild now. She had people that depended on her for leadership. He was happy that she’d found something worthwhile in Sigil Online. Just as he had.
The giant let out a last ferocious roar, before it swayed and fell. Its body didn’t even hit the sand before dematerializing into a multitude of blue and white lights. Once it was dead, two items were left on the ground where it had stood.
“Loot!” Carla called out, already running for the fallen rewards.
“No! Me first!” Brenda shouted, racing Carla to the items.
Two mounds of sand rushed up in front of Carla and Brenda, causing them to smack head-first into them.
A pair of thick vines breached the ground from where both items were lying and stretched over to Todd and Erica. They both snatched one of the items and simultaneously high-fived each other with their free hands.
Carla pulled herself out of the sand first. “No fair! You’re not allowed to work together to beat us!” said Carla.
“That’s cheating!” said Brenda, as she pulled her crossbow out of the sand. The spider-bot that had been on her shoulder, had long-since been removed due to Chase’s stamina and mind limitations.
“Let’s see what we have here,” said Todd as he held the item, ignoring Carla and Brenda’s comments.
“Oh, this is neat,” said Erica.
Riley took his time walking over to them. Chase was a bit further away and Laura was collecting up her copies.
Carla and Brenda had pulled themselves out of the sand and made their way back to Todd and Erica, at a much slower pace.
“So what did we get?” asked Carla.
“Stone of Jaden,” said Erica, holding up a ring with a white square crystal inlaid within.
“Oh, nice!” said Carla. “Lemme see!” She held her hands out.
“It actually triggered some decent stat rolls on it,” said Erica as she handed the ring over to her.
“What’d you get?” asked Brenda, looking at the long belt that Todd was holding.
“I think this is going to go to Riley,” he said. “Unless you and Carla want to heal a lot more?”
“Well that depends!” said Brenda with a huff. “What’s it do?”
By then, Riley had reached the gathered party.
Todd had handed the dark brown belt to Brenda. She inspected it for a few moments. “Hmm,” she murmured. She then spotted Riley walking in. “I don’t think I’d heal enough in a situation that it’d be useful on me,” she said as she tossed it over to Riley. “You want this?” she asked.
Riley caught the belt and inspected it as the details came up.
-
Belt of Cleansing
Upon outbound healing effect, cleanse the receiver of 1 detrimental effect.
(May not work on higher-level boss effects.)
Increase Stamina stat by 2
Increase Toughness stat by 2
Increase Luck stat by 2
Increase Mind stat by 2
&nbs
p; -
Riley’s eyebrows lifted. “Oh, I’d take this,” he said. He then looked over to Chase. “Do you want a belt that lets your heal effects remove debuffs on your target?”
Chase shook his head. “I’m mostly going to be a damage-dealer. You’ve got a good hand on healing. I mean, you’re essentially our primary healer while also buffing us. Carla and Brenda don’t want it?”
“I don’t need healing gear,” said Carla. “I’d prefer that you all pretend I can’t heal, so that I don’t have to. We have Riley, and Brenda heals faster with less of a stamina drain than I do.”
“And I don’t want it. Even if I didn’t already have a belt on,” said Brenda as she patted her waist. “I’d still say that it benefits Riley more than me.”
“I’ll be happy to accept it and make sure to keep up my good job of healing everyone...and buffing everyone. Over and over again. Forever.”
Todd smirked at Riley.
“That’s the spirit!” said Carla as she looked at Riley. “You know your job well.”
“Loot already get distributed?” asked Laura as she was the last to arrive.
Erica had already passed the Stone of Jaden to Carla. Carla stared at it a bit longer but eventually sighed. She handed it over to Laura. “Here...just take it,” she said.
“Is that a Stone of Jaden?” asked Laura as she accepted it.
-
Stone of Jaden
Increase All stats by 8
-
Her eyes lit up when she saw it. “Oh, wow...eight to all stats?”
“It benefits you the most,” said Erica. “It should keep your copies alive a lot longer. It’s also really expensive, so I mean, you could give it to Chase, but I think the safer bet is you.”
“I want a SoJ,” Seth grumbled, but then smiled.
Laura looked over to him. “I feel bad for taking it. I’d totally let you have it!”
Seth shook his head. “No, it’s all yours. You haven’t gotten a single upgrade since we’ve started coming to the fields. Besides, I don’t even have powers yet.”
“Just take it,” said Todd.
Laura sighed quietly. “Alright, well, I guess it’s time to play ‘which ring do I get rid of for it?’” she said as she stood there, contemplating her choices of the rings she was wearing. Eventually she pulled one off and placed it in her inventory. She then equipped the new ring. “Awesome,” she said with a soft smile. She held her hand up to the sky and looked at it a few moments, before lowering it and looking around. “Moving on?” she asked.
Chapter 27: We Meet Again
The group moved on from the location of the giant and encountered a crystalline creature that looked much-like the Plantra that Riley and Laura’s group had fought a while back. After about twenty minutes, they were able to take it down with relative ease, once they got the hang of how fast the blueish tentacles moved.
After defeating the monster, they decided the two item drops weren’t worth equipping and that they’d sell them when they got back to the city.
They headed off, heading deeper into the fields, looking for another boss.
Brenda’s enthusiasm for adventure had waned after the prolonged twenty-minute battle with the crystal plant they’d just fought. Laura had taken up the lead position of the group, as they ventured forth.
“If I can find some higher stamina and mind items, I should be able to construct a relatively decent-sized spider-bot,” said Chase, as he walked beside Riley at the center of the group.
“And the bigger they are, the more damage they can do?” asked Riley.
“That’s right,” Chase confirmed. “One medium-sized bot, is actually better than four small ones. But, I’d be placing a lot of risk on that single bot. If it gets taken out by an attack, then I’ve lost a lot of my damage output. My max stamina lowers every time I summon a new one, and it doesn’t come back when they get destroyed. My mind stat determines how many I can have active at a time, as well as how big they can be.”
“That’s pretty awesome,” said Riley. “I haven’t come across too many characters that use mind. Then-again, some powers seem like they’d be power based, but end up using mind...so I guess I wouldn’t always know.” Riley thought for a moment. “What if you made a large bot that used the mortar configuration all the time? You could keep it away from battle and it could lay the damage on pretty hard.”
“The mortar isn’t as accurate as the turret configuration,” said Chase. “Also, the bot is far less mobile. So if an attack actually reached its location, it’d be sure to get fried.”
“Damn, I see,” Riley murmured.
Laura was the first to crest the top of the nearby ridge. She looked around, then froze. A second later, she dropped down and laid on the blue sand. She turned her head back to the others and whispered urgently. “Everyone down! Get down!” she said, moving her hand repeatedly towards the sand.
Without question, everyone dropped. Todd made the heaviest thud into the sand.
Once everyone had lowered themselves, they slowly crawled up to where Laura was. She had shifted back, but kept her head just high enough to peak over the ridge.
Riley crawled up beside her, while Chase was on the other side of him. Riley peered out into the lower valley. There wasn’t a huge distance between them and what Laura had spotted.
Four players had positioned around two others. The light of the red moon shined off a pair of glass fists. One smashed into the chest of the other player, sending him falling back a few feet.
“Is that—” Laura whispered.
“Glasser,” Riley spoke up.
“What’re they doing?” asked Seth, from the other side of Laura.
“Looks like they’re about to kill that player,” said Laura. She turned her head to Riley. “Glasser is a PKer?” she asked.
“He wasn’t when I was grouped with him,” said Riley. “Damn, and that’s Shadow Witch with him.”
“Damn, two paragons?” asked Seth.
“Yeah, and...I think I see Glint with them,” he added. “I don’t recognise the other two.”
“They’re going to kill that guy,” said Seth. “Should we step in?”
Laura bit at her lower lip. “Maybe they’ll leave him alone if we approach,” said Laura. “There’s eight of us and five of them.”
“Glasser and Witch only run with a full paragon team,” said Riley hurriedly. “They’re all going to be stronger than us individually.”
“I’m not going to just lay here and let that guy get destroyed by them, paragons or not,” said Laura.
“Whatever you decide, we’re with you,” said Seth, who looked over to Riley.
Laura looked to Seth, then looked to Riley as well.
Riley met Laura’s gaze and gave her a nod. “We’re with you.”
With that, Laura rose. “Let’s save him,” she said as she ran down the ridge.
Seth and Riley were the next two to stand, followed by the rest of the party. They totalled eight players. Numbers were definitely on their side in that regard, even if stats weren’t.
“What’re you doing?” Laura shouted down the ridge. There was only a couple hundred feet between both groups.
Glasser had stepped up to strike at the fallen player, but stopped when Laura shouted. He turned his attention to the eight new arrivals, all descending towards his group. He lowered his arm and turned to face them.
It didn’t take long for Laura’s group of eight to get close enough for both sides to make out the details of the other. Riley looked to each of the other party members. It didn’t surprise him that Glint had teamed up with Glasser and Witch, but what was she doing with the two of them in this situation? He’d never taken Glint as a PKer.
“Private business,” said Glasser. “This guy’s group tried to jump us out here, but he failed so we’re—”
“He’s lying, his group attacked us!” the guy on the ground shouted out. “They killed the three I was with!”
“Quiet!” Glasser yelled down at the fallen player, who wore a pair of brown denim pants and a white button-up shirt.
Riley took a closer look at Glasser. He hadn’t changed much since he’d last seen him. His character looked the same, with some minor gear changes. He wore a pair of green cargo pants and a light brown shirt which clung to his muscled torso. He sported a different necklace than the last one Riley had seen him with.
Riley’s eyes widened. He saw a pair of chain bands around Glasser’s wrists. One was silver, the other gold.
“Leave him be,” said Laura. “If he really did attack you, then losing his three friends is enough. But I find it hard to believe that some PKers in this zone wouldn’t know who you are.”
Riley stood in the center of their group, easily within whispering earshot of everyone. He kept his voice low, so that only his party could hear him. “He’s wearing my old silver and gold chain bands. Heals are going to count for more while he’s got them on. Keep him away from any ranged-weapon materials he can glassify.”
Laura didn’t look back to Riley, but she gave a slow and brief nod.
“You want us to just leave this piece of crap alone? Who the hell do you think you are?” Glasser asked, his arms crossing, his glass-fists remained fully intact.
“Glint can debilitate you, if you can see her,” Riley continued to speak slowly and quietly. “She’ll reduce your accuracy and damage, and boost theirs.”
“Yeah, what’s it to you?” Laura called back as Riley continued to divulge what he knew of the paragons they were up against. “It’s not like you’re poor enough to need the money from one guy, right?”
“Shadow Witch will try to hard-damage whoever she can. She’ll go for the kill, so be careful and keep an eye on who she’s targeting,” Riley continued to whisper. “I don’t know who the other two are.”
Glasser looked to his left, where Glint and another woman stood. Glint had silver hair, a pair of black pants, and a silvery jacket, unzipped and showing off a white tank top beneath. To the left of Glint, was a woman with tanned skin. She had blue and pink colored hair, with streaks of purple. She wore a purple skirt and a long-sleeved black shirt.
