Ruler Light Online five

by Larcombe, Tom

  ~ ~ ~

  As they entered the doors they found out where the adds they'd seen running to the palace before them were. All the add-ons they'd seen rushing towards the building were attacking another group of players, one Eddie didn't recognize. Because of that, though, the goblins' backs were to them.

  “Take them,” Charles called out, loud enough for the groups to hear, but not loud enough to carry to the goblins in front of them.

  Eddie began to fire his bow again, over and over. He was glad that he'd prepared, making lots of Biting and Arcing arrows, and gladder still that he'd made as many normal arrows as he could manage because he was going through arrows at a rapid rate. He could recover some of the normal ones, but any of the Arcing or Biting arrows only allowed him to recover the arrowhead, at best.

  His notification light started flashing and he pulled it up and skimmed it before dismissing it. A moment later he stopped dead.

  Wait, what was that? he thought.

  He pulled the notification back up, not firing at all for the moment, as he stared with worry at the text.

  You have upgraded the skill Bows to (11). Well done. Strive valiantly and you're sure to increase in strength!

  “Eddie,” Allie called out. “Why aren't you shooting?”

  Eddie shook his head and started firing before he yelled back.

  “Have any of you ever got a skill upgrade notification that wasn't snarky to some degree or another? Because I just did, and it's got me worried,” he yelled.

  Allie's head snapped to him for a moment and he wasn't sure if she was catching his worry or disgusted with him for being distracted by something like that in the middle of battle.

  “Never,” she called out. “Anyone else?”

  There were a bunch of negatives expressed at that point, even from Charles' group, and that just worried Eddie even more.

  The party in front of them wiped, the add-ons proving too much for them combined with the original guards they'd been attacking, but Eddie's and Charles' parties combined ended up taking them down. As they were looting, Charles looked over.

  “So, what did you break this time, Eddie?” Charles asked.

  Eddie pulled the notification back up and shared it so the others could see.

  “What the hell is that crap?” Karl said. “It looks like the generic lines you see in the cheap knock-off games, or maybe the ones from some of the original online RPGs.”

  “I've always thought that part of the game hated me due to the messages they sent along when I improved,” Charles said. “But if that's the alternative, I'd rather have the ones I normally get. That one's all bland and rah, rah, rah!”

  “Did anyone else improve anything in that fight?” Eddie asked. “So we can see if they got the same bland response?”

  A bunch of head shakes greeted his question.

  “Damn, I wish I knew what was going on,” Eddie said. “But since we don't, we probably ought to keep going, yeah?”

  Charles nodded, then turned and led the two groups down the hallway.

  The hallways weren't bad. Mostly guards, with the occasional group of adds that caused the combined parties a little bit of grief, but not too much. Then they came to a door that was much different than the ones they'd seen so far.

  The door had no guards, unlike the previous ones, but what it did have made Eddie consider the wisdom of opening it. The goblin shamans they'd seen had all shared similar regalia. This door sported much of the same: feathers and stones draped about the frame, runes carved into the wood, and a distinct odor, a crisp one that seemed to focus Eddie's mind briefly when he noticed it.

  “Uh, guys? Is anyone else thinking that this is where their shamans live?” Eddie asked.

  Charles walked over to the door and plucked at a feather.

  “At least one of them, anyhow,” he said. “So, how do we want to handle this? There's been enough noise that if they're in there, they'll know something is going on.”

  “Well, either carefully or as fast as possible,” Eddie said, “but I don't know which is the better option.”

  “Well, I'll say carefully. I know we've got a lot of offensive spells, but the ones with the most damage are all fire-based and we're in a wooden building,” Charles said.

  Dominic had overheard him.

  “That's not as important now. As long as I save some mana, I've now got a fire extinguishing spell as well as offensive ones. So, if the fight can go quick I can take care of anything we set on fire,” Dominic said.

  “Huh, I wasn't aware that fire specialization also got fire nullification,” Charles said.

  “We get a lot of fire and heat related stuff. I can cool stuff off, down to room temperature at least. That I've been able to do for a long time, since I specialized. So it makes sense to get fire control spells also. I should've said it's a control, not extinguishing. I can also make fires burn hotter with it, but one option with the spell is putting them out.”

  “Oh, that makes more sense. Well, fast then?” Charles said.

  In the end, their caution was unnecessary. Charles swung the door open and those with spells fired them off right away. There were only two goblins in the room and they went down fast. When they checked their combat logs after, they discovered that the two were just apprentices.

  “Which means that there's probably a fairly high level shaman somewhere in the palace,” Eddie said.

  “Bets that he's with the boss?” Charles said.

  “No thanks, I don't like losing bets,” Eddie replied.

  Charles grinned at him.

  “Okay, let's get moving then.”

  There wasn't much loot in the room, not even on the apprentices, so it wasn't long until they were moving down the hallways again.

  ~ ~ ~

  The guards were easy now, after having fought the first two sets they had their potential moves and patterns down. Even before they knew them, they'd gone down fast since two goblins, no matter how well armed and armored, were nothing against the two combined parties.

  The next thing to slow them down was when the hallway spilled out into a large room. They stopped back out of sight of the room proper, able to see just how long it was through the doorway and assuming it was wider as well.

  With a motion Charles sent Stalker and Karl towards the room, the two fading out of view as they moved down the hallway. Seconds later they were back.

  “Lots of gobs,” Karl said.

  “Tactical setup,” Stalker said. “A row of guards in the front. Twelve of them. They're tanking for a whole unit of goblin archers, maybe twenty or more.”

  “Is anyone else curious why the inside of this palace seems so much bigger than it should be from what it looks like from the outside?” Eddie asked. “What's up with that?”

  “Eddie, now's not the time,” Charles said.

  “Yeah, but I was just thinking it might be quicker to just run a rope up the outside and come in one of the windows up there. Who knows how much more space there is down here on the ground floor. We haven't even seen stairs up yet, and there were three levels to this place.”

  Charles' face took on a thoughtful look.

  “But there have been a bunch of windows. You're right, lots more than there should've been on the ground floor from what we saw outside. So, you want to cheese the raid is what you're saying.”

  “Hey, they started it by making it bigger inside than outside, if we also respond unconventionally, is that still cheesing? An unconventional response to an unconventional situation,” Eddie replied. “Unless all palaces and such are like that in the game. In which case I'm about to own my very own TARDIS.”

  “Except yours wouldn't go anywhere, Eddie,” Karl said.

  “Close enough for me,” Eddie replied.

  “Well, let's take these guys, then we'll see what's available for windows. How about that?” Charles said, keeping Eddie and Karl's banter from continuing.

  Eddie grinned.

  “Works for me, how
do we want to do this?”

  “Hell, the easy way,” Karl said. “Dominic can just blast them all, then put the remaining fire out.”

  “Umm,” Dominic interjected.

  Charles shook his head.

  “Are they spread out at all? If so, I don't think he's got anything with a big enough AOE,” Charles said.

  Dominic nodded, looking relieved.

  “Okay, so, Dominic, you get the left flank. Take as many of them as you can. Tamshir, stone bolts where you can to try to break morale. Eddie, Ephram, you need to start working on the archers on the right flank. The tanks will charge in on the right. Alyx. Tiana, get where you need to be to reach anyone with healing and hold there unless charged. Stalker and Karl, you're free floating. If they've got a leader I want holes in his back. Got it everyone?”

  A round of nods answered his question.

  Either group alone might've had some problems with this encounter, but with the two groups together Charles' plan flowed like clockwork. The one thing that might've disrupted them was the shaman hidden behind the archers, but the shaman tipped his hand, casting as they entered the room.

  They led with Dominic's casting. As the left flank burned and Dominic tried to extinguish the flames he'd just created, the tanks went trotting in, lining up against several goblin guards each. Meanwhile arrows were already flying, more at the groups than away from them, but the results of the archer battle were lopsided in favor of the groups. The goblin archers were making pincushions out of the tank's shields, directed to fire at them by their leader, but Ephram and Eddie were rapidly removing the goblin archers from the field of battle.

  Stalker and Karl had split up when they noticed the shaman, Karl going for the shaman and Stalker taking the goblin in charge. It was another of the lieutenants, so when Stalker stabbed it, it didn't drop. Instead it whirled to face its attacker, but Stalker was paying his stealth maintenance despite its massive stamina cost, and the lieutenant found nothing to attack. When it started to turn back to the rest of the battle, Stalker hit it again, this time letting his stealth drop and darting out past the battle lines.

  Karl waited until the shaman started another cast, apparently targeting Stalker as he broke stealth, and plunged his swords into the shaman's back.

  Tamshir saw the lieutenant chasing Stalker and let loose with a pair of stone bolts that struck it and nearly dropped it. Dominic had the fires under control now, the left flank annihilated by his spells and flames, and tossed a fiery arrow at the lieutenant that finished the job, leaving it sprawled on the floor.

  Karl engaged the shaman, preventing it from any more spell casting, and another stone bolt from Tamshir finished it off.

  The tanks were glowing golden almost constantly for the first minute or two of the fight, but then the healers needed to cast on them less and less as their opponents were whittled down.

  Lucky refused to be kept back from the battle as well, despite Tiana asking her to guard Eddie. She stayed with him for the first few minutes of the fight, beginning to whine as time went by. Finally Eddie couldn't take listening to it any more, it sounded like Lucky was miserable.

  “Go ahead, girl,” he said, not even pausing his arrow fire.

  Lucky streaked out into the fight, once more leaping over Jern and into the line of goblin guards. They'd already been thinned out and Jern had been holding the attention of his opponents, so the giant bobcat leaping over the dwarf and coming down on a goblin opened a hole in the line that Jern was happy to take advantage of.

  Striking down the last goblin guard on one side of the hole left him with no opponents at his back, but with the dwarf crossing the 'T' of his enemies lines. He began to work down the line, Lucky darting in and out of the fight, striking down the goblins that were still facing off with the other tanks.

  A minute later it was all over. The combined parties looted their victims, then moved to the windows along one side of the room.

  “See, we're only like ten feet beyond the entrance. If we play by their rules we'll be at this forever. Let's skip ahead to the end, or at least through the middle that's bound to just be designed to wear us down,” Eddie said.

  Charles cocked his head.

  “There's no rule against anything like that anywhere, right?”

  “I'm sure that, if there is, we'll hear about it later, but for now? Let's just do it,” Eddie said.

  “Who's going to climb up to get a rope up there?”

  Eddie answered by drawing out a rope and a grappling hook from in his inventory.

  “No-one, give me a minute or two and I'll get this set, then go up and make sure it's secure,” he said.

  ~ ~ ~

  Eddie noticed something while he was securing the rope for the climb up, and felt the need to check on something.

  [group chat: Eddie – Do me a favor, look in the window right next to the one we came out, would you?]

  [group chat: Karl – WTF? It doesn't lead into the same room as the one we came out of. The one on the other side leads into one of the rooms we already went into. Does each of the windows on the side of the building represent a different room on the inside or something?]

  [group chat: Eddie – Don't know, but it's the same up here. Windows side by side lead into different rooms. Oh, and we've got more of the bigger guys up here. More of those Lieutenants and the like.]

  [group chat: Tiana - I'll tell Charles, see if that makes any difference to him and his group.]

  [group chat: Eddie - Oh, and the rope's ready whenever all of you are.]

  A minute or two later the others came up the rope. Fortunately there was a wide ledge up there that could've held even more people than the two groups. Lucky had made her way up the protrusions on the building. Evidently the goblins, or at least the goblin leader, preferred some ornamentation on his buildings. She'd lost the effect of the animal growth spell while waiting down below, so she was back to her normal, oversized self.

  “Well, this isn't the best,” Charles said. “I'd hoped we could all just crash into a room at the same time, but it looks like we'll all need to use the same window.”

  “Yeah, and I think we should move along this ledge before we do,” Eddie said. “I think we were heading for the stairs inside, so we should go the same way here on the third level to get to the very last room, right?”

  “Hm,” Charles said. “We really don't want to pop in on the boss room through the window. We should pick something a couple of rooms back, somewhere with a door we can block or something, otherwise all these goblins we're skipping could come rushing in at our backs.”

  Eddie shuddered for a moment, remembering all the mobs he'd seen through the windows.

  “Good point,” he said. “Well, they don't appear to have noticed me peeking in through the windows, so we ought to be able to take our pick.”

  They went back three windows from the last one on that level. Charles had sent Stalker to check them out in stealth, not wanting to push the luck Eddie seemed to have had by not being noticed. Stalker had reported back that that one only had one set of double doors leading into it, double doors that could be barred closed. There was another set of double doors leading out also, so this one seemed like a good option.

  Charles had grinned at the option to bar the doors.

  “Nice to give them the same difficulties they wanted to give us, right?” he said. “Now, I'll head in first, Stalker saw three gobs in there. One captain and two lieutenant types, right Stalker?”

  “That's what I saw. Doesn't mean it's all that's there, but at least that many.”

  “Okay, who's going next after me. I think probably Allie. She's got decent armor and we can take a few steps out and form a line, allowing everyone else to make it in as well.”

  “Works for me,” Allie said. “Can we go yet?”

  “Sure, you call it Charles,” Eddie said. “I think the wizards should wait out on the ledge if they can do their casting from there, that lets those of us with more melee ca
pability get in quicker.”

  “That's an idea I can get behind,” Dominic said.

  Tamshir just snorted, but she stepped towards the end of the group.

  “Oh, and Charles? I think it won't be an issue, what we're doing,” Eddie said.

  “Why's that?”

  “If we had thought to look in the windows on the ground floor and done some scouting? Then we would've known all about the extended size of the floors. We probably would've tried to circumvent them somehow then. If they didn't intend something like that I don't think they'd have the windows set the way they are.”

  Charles nodded.

  “Maybe, but at least it's a good defense if there is a problem. Now please excuse me while I crash a party.”

  Charles tensed up, then leapt through the window into the room they'd chosen. Allie was right behind him, but there was a problem. A flash of light showed in the room somewhere and then the two of them stopped moving. As they stood there, unmoving, the goblin lieutenants in the room started advancing on them while the captain just sat there laughing.

  Crap, that had to come from the corner we can't see, Eddie thought.

  “Karl, with me, right behind me. You know what to do. I'll draw attention and give you a shot.”

  Even though he'd been talking to Karl, Eddie noticed that Stalker made it into Stealth before Karl did.

  Good, better to have two rogues for backup, because I'm sure I'll be eating a spell or two before this is over, Eddie thought.

  Eddie pulled his bow, nocked a Biting arrow, then drew it. Holding it drawn, he followed Charles and Allie into the room in a diving lunge. He soared over Allie's head, firing his bow as soon as he had a target, then concentrating on rolling and recovering from his entry.

  You have upgraded the skill Acrobatics to (6). Look at that! Now that you're trying to be a mighty warrior don't you wish you'd worked on more fighting skills and less crafting?

  The message flashed by while he was in mid-air, him having turned notifications back on for this fight, just in case. Eddie breathed a sigh of relief as he skimmed it, then landed and rolled. He was on his feet, his bow back in his inventory, and his sword in hand by the time the first lieutenant made it to Charles.