Ruler Light Online five

by Larcombe, Tom

“Yeah, I could see Dom getting upset about something like that too. Still, awesome job, man.”

  Campbell grinned at him again.

  “Thanks, gotta get back to the group, see if we're continuing with you guys. That was really rough on us,” Campbell said.

  He went back over to where Cooper had the rest of the group assembled, they talked softly for a few moments. Eddie took that chance to regroup with his own people, checking in on them.

  “See, I'm not the only one that gets the willies from their wizard,” Dominic said. “Did you see the looks on the shamans' faces when he let loose like that? What is up with him?”

  Eddie shrugged.

  “Hey, it worked in our favor, so I'm not about to complain, right?”

  Dominic nodded, although it looked slightly grudging.

  “Everyone ready? One more room then the boss, at least if our estimation is correct.” Eddie said.

  “I need a few more minutes for mana regen,” Tiana said. “We, the healers that is, went through a lot of mana healing in that one so it's probably best if we're fully regenned before we continue.”

  “Makes sense,” Eddie said. “I'm sure the other groups will be doing the same, so relax for a bit.”

  ~ ~ ~

  The next room was significantly larger than the one they'd just cleared: taller, deeper, and wider. The additional room was necessary for the four mounted Goblin Wolf Riders that were astride Giant Wolves.

  Lucky's hackles raised and she dropped into a stance she used when ready to spring out and pounce. Eddie wasn't about to try to stop her, not with her in that mood. Instead, he turned to Becky.

  “Becky, enlarge her again, please?” he asked.

  Becky shook Bubbles out of her sleeve, selected the two pets and muttered for a moment. The cat and the rat both swelled in size, just in time, since a moment later Lucky launched herself in a pounce. Eddie nocked a Biting arrow, waited just long enough to see what Lucky's target was, then fired it at the Elite Goblin Warrior astride Lucky's target.

  Eddie dropped into the zone, firing as fast as he could. Originally he'd been tentatively slotted to firing at the shamans, but that plan had gone out the window as soon as they'd seen the wolf riders. Charles was calling out out orders in a booming voice, but Eddie didn't listen, just kept firing at his target.

  Lucky was tearing at the wolf. With her nearly as large as it was, she was still dominating the fight, at least until the rider swung at her, forcing her to dodge and opening her up to a counter attack from the wolf.

  The wolf's paw struck Lucky, sending her sliding across the floor, a gash in her flank. Eddie rushed over and hit her with a Nature's Binding spell, then resumed firing at the wolf's rider. The rider spurred the wolf forward, the mount somehow getting up to a charge speed almost instantly.

  Eddie nocked another Biting arrow and changed his target, firing at the wolf instead of the rider. As the arrow struck, the rime spread from it and the wolf stumbled. The rider was thrown as the wolf slid to the floor, it's co-ordination momentarily fled. Eddie stepped forward, Lucky at his side, and thrust into the rider's throat. Lucky spared a moment to slash her claws across the rider's throat when Eddie withdrew his sword, then she leapt at the wolf that was only now starting to regain its feet.

  The rest of the wolves had charged the group, the tanks catching and holding them. But the Elite Goblin Warriors were now on top of the tanks as well. A glance at Lucky showed Eddie that she had the fight with the wolf well in hand, so he turned back to the melee. The Wolf Riders' initial strike had taken the party hard, but they were slowly catching back up. The biggest problem was the height the Giant Wolves gave to their riders. If a tank lifted their shield to block from one of those strikes, they opened themselves up to strikes from the Elites.

  Ephram and Cooper were firing as fast as they could at one of the riders, but he hadn't fallen yet. One of the other Riders was down, his smoking corpse telling Eddie that Dominic had been focusing on him for a bit, but now the wizard was targeting the shamans in the back of the room.

  Rather than waste more of his prepared arrows, Eddie simply started casting his Frostbite spell directly, over and over, targeting each wolf that still had a rider in turn. As the wolves that failed their save were forced to the ground, unable to bear their rider while under the effect of the spell, he thought it was the best solution.

  His casting attempts were interrupted by a flash of light and an avalanche of pain. His health was flashing now and a quick glance at it told him that whatever had hit him was bad.

  Health: 237/408

  Damn, I wonder what spell they hit me with? he thought.

  Only then did he notice the lingering pain. A glance at his leg showed that his armor was scorched and smoldering.

  Fire then, I guess. Which one was it?

  He glanced at the four shamans that they'd found in this room, only to find two of them gone, a third trading spells with Dominic and Tamshir. The last was looking back and forth between Eddie and Ferring, who was now floating twenty feet up in the room, still ten feet below the ceiling. The shaman looked slightly unnerved.

  Eddie roared and changed the target of his Frostbite spell to the shaman that had cast at him. At the same time, Ferring let out another cackle and released a spell of his own. A greenish bolt that looked like lightning, except for the color, flew out of his hand and struck the shaman.

  That shaman dropped, but a commotion started up on the other side of the room. Eddie had been turning back to burn more of his mana on the wolves, but he saw Olson in trouble. Cooper's rogue had apparently popped up for a backstab on the goblin archer on the far end of the line, but he hadn't dropped it. Now the archer had spun and was attacking Olson so he couldn't drop back into Stealth.

  Some of the other archers had also turned their attention to him, apparently he'd drawn their aggro by attacking the other archer. It wasn't long until Olson dropped, the arrows and sword slashes that had struck him overwhelming his health.

  “Olson's been sent to respawn,” Campbell yelled.

  Campbell himself was also hard-pressed. He was trying to hold off a wolf, its rider, and two of the Elite Goblin Warriors and it was just too much for him. He kept flashing gold as he was healed, but he'd only managed to drop the wolf and rider when he collapsed.

  Eddie stared again as instead of being sent to respawn Campbell was surrounded by a gold aura, the hint of a red X visible in the gold aura. Bob came right up to him and grabbed him, starting to drag him back. From what Eddie could see, the goblins didn't even see Bob, or find anything strange about the body being dragged away from them. He started firing his arrows again, deciding to save his mana for later since the healers seemed hard pressed.

  Maybe I should save their mana instead, Eddie thought.

  He gestured and cast accelerated heal where it would catch all three of the remaining tanks, hoping the added regeneration would help keep them up.

  A minute later Campbell stood, shakily, and moved back through the door. Bob, looking a little pale, turned back to the tanks and started healing again.

  By that time the rest of the wolves and riders were down and the Elites had been thinned by half. Eddie focused in on firing again, now targeting the remaining goblin archers. Half of those were gone as well, the archers having become the target of choice for the missile users from the group and the wizards.

  Karl popped up behind the archer on the end, his backstab dropping the goblin instantly. He dashed off, trying to see if the archers had spotted him and when they didn't change targets, he shimmered and disappeared into Stealth again.

  Stalker was more daring, shimmering into existence behind one of the Elite Warriors on Charles and sinking his weapons in it to the hilt. It didn't drop, but Stalker simply pulled his weapons out and prepared to fight.

  When that Elite turned, Charles said something that enraged it and it immediately turned back to the Paladin. Stalker's next strike wasn't a backstab since he wasn't stealthed, but i
t was still enough to drop the Elite Warrior.

  The tide had turned and now, instead of being outnumbered, the remaining members of the three groups outnumbered their opponents. The rest of the fight only lasted a minute or two. Then Eddie dropped to the floor to rest, feeling exhausted. When he checked he was down to a third of his mana, a little higher than half on his own health, and if he'd been fighting for another minute he would've started getting a warning that his stamina was low.

  “Who needs heals?” Alyx called out after the healers finally got the tanks back to full health.

  Eddie raised his hand wearily. He'd tossed a Nature's Binding on himself after he sat, but they wouldn't stack and he was still well below max on his health.

  Tiana headed his way with a word to Alyx, who laughed. Then Alyx herself turned and started healing the others who were wounded. Eddie wasn't the only non-tank to take damage. Most of the groups had, except for Becky and Tamshir. Dominic had been hit by a spell or two and Ferring had drawn quite a bit of aggro by floating up above the fight.

  ~ ~ ~

  Chapter Nine

  Loki/Greenshaw stumbled around the room. Loki was having problems with movement, the body not reacting to his commands the way he'd thought it would. There were also the distractions caused by the physical needs of the body. Something in the abdomen was feeling hollow, as though it needed something. Further down the body was a feeling of fullness that was nearly to the point of being uncomfortable.

  He'd figured out how to control the body well enough at first, but when additional demands were made on him, he'd discovered that in his current situation he was unable to split off shards to control the functions he didn't want to focus on.

  It's a good thing that the body itself has autonomous functions that keep it alive, otherwise I'd have a problem focusing on everything at the same time. Bad enough that I don't know what those sensations from the body are demanding, but that they distract me from the things I need to do to control the body is the worst part of it, he thought.

  Slowly, Loki discovered how to ignore those sensations and his pace smoothed out again, laughter once more ringing out in the room. Suddenly, the pressure in his lower body eased, bring a feeling of pleasure at the same time, then his nose twitched instinctively at the odor.

  Gah! Olfactory senses are highly overrated, Loki thought. Especially for something like this. What is that stench?

  He began to laugh again as the body became easier to control. He was laughing hard enough that he didn't hear the door open again. The first he knew of it was when he was seized by rough hands.

  “Damn it, what the hell is wrong with him? He just keeps laughing and he shit himself, pissed himself too if I'm not mistaken.”

  Loki understood the words being said, but somehow was unable to process the references.

  “Let go of me,” Loki demanded. “Don't you know who I am?”

  “Yes sir, Mr. Greenshaw. I know who you are. We're going to get you some help, don't you worry. Just come with me.”

  Loki panicked as he was pushed along, slightly forcefully, towards the office door. Giving it up for lost and deciding to call it a learning experience, he sought to send his consciousness back to his server, only to find his way blocked. The firewall was still around his consciousness, but it was somehow reversed now, not allowing him to penetrate it from the inside.

  “Nooo! You can't do this to me,” he cried out.

  “Sorry sir, just come with us and we'll find out what's wrong with you. Don't worry, sir. We won't allow any harm to come to you, just come along with us peacefully now.”

  ~ ~ ~

  As the groups were healed Charles took the bar that could be used on the door behind them and, instead, placed it at an angle blocking the door they hadn't gone through yet.

  “I think we're going to need a bit of regen time before we try this next one,” he said. “Because that last fight was almost too much.”

  He turned to Cooper.

  “Sorry you lost one of your guys, Olson was it?”

  “Don't be sorry, we told him he had to grind more. He was too lazy about it. I was more worried about Campbell, but Bob got to him in time,” Cooper said.

  “Yeah,” Charles said. “I saw that, I thought we were going to be down him as well for the last fight.”

  “Yeah, if Bob can get to them, he's got a spell that'll keep them from respawn until he can heal them. He calls it Medic, but I don't know if that's its real name or not.”

  “It is,” Bob said, from where he was busy still healing Campbell. “It stabilizes the target, gives me immunity to attack, to being noticed really, and lets me have a chance to drag the target out of combat and heal them. Only one minute though, so if they aren't close enough to me or are blocked by hostiles, I can't use it. Olson was too deep in the fight for me to get to, so I couldn't use it then.”

  “Damn,” Karl said. “That sounds like an awesome spell.”

  “Costly though, a hundred mana and like I said, only one minute to get everything done,” Bob replied.

  “Still,” Eddie said. “Being able to prevent them from being sent to respawn if you're quick enough rocks.”

  Bob just shrugged, blushing slightly.

  “I think the game gave it to me because of some real world skills, like triage and basic medical skills.”

  “Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest,” Eddie said. “Good to know that you've got that.”

  He turned towards Karl.

  “Not that it means we're more free to do stupid stuff.”

  Karl flipped him off.

  “Yeah, like I'm the only one who does stupid shit in this group?” Karl said.

  Eddie just settled back against the wall, Lucky coming up and pushing her head under his hand. He scratched her ears idly as they waited for everyone to get fully healed and then waited longer for everyone's mana to regenerate.

  Eddie had been idly looking at the door they were about to go through. When Charles asked if everyone was ready, he stood.

  “Give me a second, would you? I might go into the next fight with less than maximum mana, but there's a gap at the base of the door. If I can get low enough to the floor to look through it I might be able to use a spell to scout it out.”

  “Eagle Eye?” Charles asked.

  “Yeah, it auto-focuses. I figure if I can see anything I can zoom in on it with the spell and see it in focus. I know looking under the door wouldn't let me focus well normally, but with the spell?”

  “How thick are the floors?” Becky asked.

  Eddie turned to her and cocked his head at her apparent non-sequitur.

  “I have a wood sculpting spell. If the floors are thick enough I can probably give you an indentation in front of the door so you can get a better angle,” she said.

  “Hm, maybe use it to drill a tiny hole in the floor so we can see how thick the wood is?” Eddie asked.

  Becky nodded and concentrated. A hole, just thick enough to look through appeared in the floor. The wood around the edge of it rising in a hump as she shifted the location of it.

  “About a foot thick. I can probably give you an eight inch deep groove there. Would that help?” she asked.

  “Go for it,” Eddie said. “Shave a little of the floor right under the door also. I don't think they'll notice and that'll give me a wider range of sight.”

  Becky concentrated again and Eddie watched as the floor slowly shifted, large lumps of wood growing to either side of the door while an indentation grew in front of it.

  When she was done, he dropped to his knees and put his cheek on the ground, peering through the door.

  Cast Eagle Eye, he thought.

  Once the spell took effect he started zooming in. A minute later he stood.

  “I don't know if that's good or bad,” he said.

  “What?” Charles asked.

  “There aren't that many in there,” Eddie said. “Which leads me to believe that all of the ones who are will be damned stron
g.”

  “So, what do we have then?”

  Eddie described the room and the mobs he had seen to Charles, who immediately took the information and started planning out loud.

  ~ ~ ~

  As Charles described the plan to everyone, Eddie mused back on the Evaluate he'd just done. He'd only tried one, because when he saw the level of the one he'd done he was afraid someone would notice if he tried any more.

  King Aerthanon

  Type: Monster

  Forest Troll (elite)

  Level: 30

  Armor: ???

  Health: ???

  Attack: ???

  You are currently unable to obtain more information about King Aerthanon with Evaluate.

  All Charles had said when Eddie relayed that to him was:

  “Good, looks like this is the boss battle then.”

  He tuned back in to Charles as he assigned people tasks for the coming battle. Eddie's initial target would be the Giant Wolf he'd seen in there. He didn't have enough of an angle to tell if it had a rider or not, so he and Lucky might be evenly matched, two on two, or they might have a slight advantage. Either way, Eddie had already asked Becky to enlarge Lucky one more time right before the battle started since the last one had worn off already.

  Finally Charles finished detailing his plan. He removed the brace from the door and swung it open before casually walking into the next room. Behind him were the other tanks, followed by the missile support. The wizards were behind them and the healers would come in last. Not much of that mattered though since Charles stopped dead three steps into the room.

  “Charles?” Allie asked, but he didn't answer.

  “Allow me,” Ferring said, shouldering his way towards the front. “I recognize that spell.”

  “Do something quickly,” Eddie said. “Because that big champion you talked about is heading this way.”

  “Sure, here,” Ferring said.