Ruler Light Online five

by Larcombe, Tom

  He thrust a hand towards Charles, coming within an inch or two of his armor, and Charles suddenly shifted, swinging his shield in front of him. Eddie saw the glint of a long needle in Ferring's hand.

  “Heh, thought so,” Ferring said. “That particular paralyze spell is dismissed if the victim takes even a single point of damage.”

  Then the crash of Charles's shield intercepting a blow set Eddie's ears to ringing.

  The tanks were fanning out to either side of Charles now, and Eddie saw his target. He raised his bow, nocked an Arcing arrow, then fired. Lucky, at his side, began to growl.

  “Wait for it, Lucky,” Eddie shouted, unsure if the cat would hear anything with less volume.

  Eddie glanced around, seeing only the mobs he'd told Charles about and no more. There were three of the Elite Goblin Warriors, these even bigger than the captains and showing as generals, the ancient shaman, the Giant Wolf, the Half-Breed Goblin Champion, and the king himself, only now rising from his throne.

  Good, one less worry there, he thought. I was afraid I might've missed someone.

  Lucky was growling again, her body tensed as though she were ready to pounce.

  “No Lucky, wait. It'll come to us, then you can attack it,” Eddie said.

  He fired at the wolf again, noting the intelligence in its eyes. Far more than in any of the other wolves he'd faced before. This one began to stalk forward after the second arrow, it's eye darting this way and that. The smash of metal on metal kept making Eddie want to turn to where Charles and the Champion were fighting, but instead he kept his eyes on the wolf.

  It was good that he did, because after a few seconds the wolf started dashing forward, picking up speed. Campbell and Jern were in front of Eddie, engaged with two of the warriors, but that didn't slow the wolf at all. It turned on a dime and used its momentum to leap at the wall, redirecting itself over the heads of those blocking it from its target, then coming down behind them and pouncing toward Eddie in a massive leap.

  “Now Lucky,” Eddie called, shooting one more arrow at the wolf while it was in mid-air and unable to turn.

  That shot had been a Biting arrow. Eddie was hoping to slow the wolf, even if it didn't do any more than that. Instead the rime failed to expand from the arrow the way it normally did and Eddie realized that it must've made its save.

  He'd already willed the bow into his inventory when he realized that, and he had his sword mostly drawn when Lucky hit the wolf in mid-air. With the enlarge she was big enough that she changed its trajectory and Eddie lashed out with his sword, scoring the wolf's flank as it flew past him.

  He whirled and got to see the wolf nearly skid into the Champion, but it recovered and spun around to face Eddie again. Lucky went by him at a run launching herself at the wolf again as Eddie stepped up with his sword.

  Alright, let's put all that practice into play, as a matter of fact Acrobatics worked pretty well against the wolves with the orcs, so let's see, he thought.

  Lucky had the wolf's attention so Eddie went sprinting up as though he were going to charge it. At the last moment, he dove underneath it, rolling on his back and sliding along the floor with his sword extended upwards.

  It was a solid hit, but his sword dragging along the wolf's belly and cutting it open slowed him so he didn't quite make it past the wolf. With a twist, he brought himself to his feet, behind the wolf now, and thrust hard, burying several inches of his sword in the wolf's rear end and causing it to yelp and spin.

  Lucky took advantage of that. Eddie saw where she'd been hit already, blood flowing freely along her coat. That didn't deter him though, if anything it made him angry. Using his hard won sword skills he started to bleed the wolf slowly, dodging the return attacks as possible. He had to heal himself with Nature's binding at one point and he tossed one on Lucky when he had the chance as well.

  The rest of the fight had pulled away from them now, but they were still near the door, close enough that as his Health began to drop again he was covered in a golden glow and his wounds began to close. Lucky received one a moment later and the two of them redoubled their efforts on the Giant Wolf.

  Eddie and Lucky were working the wolf down fairly quickly, but an opportunity presented itself a minute later. There was a rather loud squeak and then a squeal from the wolf. Eddie looked down to see an enlarged Bubbles with his teeth set in the wolf's paw. As the wolf leaned its head forward to try to bite the rat, Eddie took the opportunity to thrust at the back of the wolf's neck.

  At the same time Lucky leapt onto the wolf's back, noticing its attention was elsewhere. She latched on with her jaws and front claws, then proceeded to rake her rear claws along the wolf's back, exposing bone. Eddie took another thrust at the neck and the wolf stiffened. Bubbles let go of its paw and darted back towards the doorway. Lucky tore and shredded the wolf for a few more seconds before it collapsed. The bobcat leapt off as the wolf was falling, landing beside Eddie and looking up at him.

  “Not now Lucky, we've got to help someone else if we can,” Eddie said, noticing that it looked like Lucky wanted to lick his face.

  He backed up to the wall near the door, pulling out his bow again. It looked like, just as Charles had planned, Ephram and Cooper were firing at the Ancient Shaman continually. Unfortunately, the shaman had some sort of shield up, the arrows piling up in front of it.

  But they're still firing at it, I guess it needs to keep its concentration on the shield for the moment in order to keep it up, Eddie thought.

  Eddie glanced the other way, only to see that Jern and Campbell weren't having much luck against their opponents. He nocked an arrow and started firing.

  “Lucky, guard me, let me know if anyone's about to attack me, okay?” he said, nocking another arrow.

  This time the bobcat sat, her head turning this way and that as she scanned the room.

  Eddie fired over and over at the Elite on Jern, but the dwarf was still losing his battle. Finally Jern's opponent gave a cry, bringing its sword over its head with a massive cleaving attack. Jern brought his shield up to interpose it, but the strike split the shield, driving itself almost all the way through Jern's arm.

  The dwarf fell, blood spurting from his wound. Eddie saw the Elite winding up for a finishing strike on the dwarf and raced over, shooting an Arc spell as soon as he in close enough. The Elite was wearing metallic armor, so the spell easily hit, electricity racing all over the Elite's body. Eddie cast another Arc as he closed and was struck by the elite, then he followed up with a Frostbite as soon as he could after that. The Elite, which Jern had almost managed to kill on his own, dropped his sword after the third spell, slowly toppling over backwards.

  “Jern,” Eddie said, spinning and starting to cast Nature's Binding on the dwarf. He healed a bit, but the blood still kept pouring from his almost severed arm.

  “Eddie, lad. It's too late, I'm too far gone. Take this, give it to my family so they can declare a new heir,” Jern muttered, drawing a golden medallion from his pocket and placing it in Eddie's hand.

  The dwarf went limp and, for a moment, Eddie thought that they'd lost him. Then a golden shimmer surrounded the dwarf, a red cross in the center of it.

  Oh, I get it, Eddie thought. Red Cross, not an X, Red cross from a medic. Makes sense now.

  Bob came darting over.

  “Let me get him out of here and I'll heal him up,” Bob said. “Watch out though, Campbell looks like he's on his last legs too.”

  Eddie nodded, then stood.

  “Lucky,” he called, then he pointed to the Elite on Campbell. “Get him!”

  He pulled his own sword and started to flank the Elite that Campbell had been fighting. As he thrust towards the Elite's side, Lucky came in from the other side. Campbell, seeing the dual attack, rushed his own next attack. The Elite had to choose where to defend and it chose Campbell. Eddie and Lucky's attacks scored solidly. They helped Campbell for a minute or so until Eddie's attention was drawn by a familiar cackle, except it was co
ming from farther into the room, not out near the door where Ferring was stationed.

  He kept most of his attention on the Elite, which was nearly dead now, but out of the corner of his eye Eddie saw the ancient shaman rise slowly into the air, cackling as he went.

  That's too damn familiar. How the hell did Ferring learn to do that exactly the same way? Eddie wondered.

  A final strike from Campbell dropped the Elite they were fighting and Eddie turned to watch the shaman.

  “Hah! I know that one,” Ferring cried.

  Over near the door, the cracked wizard began to rise into the air and hurl spells at the shaman, only instead of targeting the shaman in the air, Ferring targeted the ground directly beneath it.

  The shaman in the air flickered and faded, to reveal the actual shaman standing on the ground, beneath the illusion that had been disrupted.

  Cooper and Ephram weren't firing on the shaman any more, the pile of arrows on the floor in front of the shaman told Eddie why. They weren't getting anything done. At the same time that he saw the arrows, Eddie saw Karl standing behind the shaman, unnaturally still. Stalker was in a similar situation several feet to one side. The only movement from either of them seemed to be their breathing.

  “Get back on the shaman,” Ferring called out, “he only uses that illusion when his shield runs out.”

  Eddie wasn't sure that Cooper and Ephram had heard that, so he turned towards the shaman himself, nocking a normal arrow and firing to test Ferring's statement. As his arrow struck the shaman, no shield in the way, he tensed when he heard the cackle yet again, this time from his own lines. A glance showed him Ferring rising into the air, staring at the shaman, and cackling even louder than normal.

  The shaman had definitely heard it as well, he stared at Ferring as the wizard rose into the air, then launched a small bolt of lightning at the ground directly below the rising wizard.

  This time when Eddie knocked an arrow it was one of his few Biting arrows. As the shaman started to cast again, the arrow flew, striking him. The rime spreading from the impact point was obvious, even from this distance.

  “Stupid goblin. I do it for real, not your damned illusion,” Ferring called out once he'd recovered from being close to the lightning. A trio of green orbs shot out from Ferring's hands, racing across the room and striking the shaman. Eddie quickly nocked another arrow and fired, the electricity from his Arcing arrow racing across the small shaman's body when it struck.

  Cooper and Ephram had finally caught on and they were firing as fast as they could, having switched back to the shaman as their target. Ferring was also targeting the shaman and between the four of them the shaman was unable to get another cast off before he slumped to the floor.

  Eddie glanced at Karl and Stalker, but the death of the shaman had not released them from whatever spell was keeping them paralyzed. He shook his head, then turned to take stock of what remained.

  The troll had stood before and simply watched the battle. Now it was moving forward from its throne, stepping towards the Champion that was going head to head with Charles. Jern was nowhere in sight and Eddie hoped that Bob had been able to keep him alive since the dwarf would just die, not go to respawn. Allie was nowhere to be seen either, but Campbell was moving towards Charles to give him some support.

  Cooper and Ephram re-targeted, firing at the troll. They hit easily enough, but the arrows only stayed in the body for a few seconds, then they were forced out and the flesh healed instantly behind them.

  Well shit, Eddie thought. Is it a typical troll? Only fire or acid will do damage that doesn't regenerate? I kind of hope it is since we've got a fire mage with us.

  Eddie started firing himself as well, but he targeted the Champion instead of the king. If his arrows were only going to wound the king for a short period of time, he didn't want to waste them on him.

  “Dominic,” Eddie called out as he fired. “Troll? Fire damage?”

  “On it,” Dominic yelled.

  A moment later a bright lance of light flashed past Eddie's head, impacting on the king and blackening his skin. Eddie watched as he shot, flicking a glance over at the king after each arrow. The blackened wound was not healing the way the arrow wounds had.

  The king looked up, irritation evident on its face, then continued striding towards Campbell and Charles. It lifted a hand to what looked like a golden torc which it wore on its left bicep since it was too small for its neck and a moment later a bright flash shot out from the torc.

  Dominic's next spell went flashing by only to spread out and dissipate when it struck a point just before Charles. An entire section of air that went all the way across the room and about fifteen feet into the air shimmered like a heat wave for a moment when the spell struck it.

  “Invisible wall,” Eddie yelled. “Charles and Campbell are in trouble.”

  Tiana sent a heal towards Charles only for the wall to shimmer again, much fainter this time.

  “Heals won't go through either,” Tiana yelled.

  ~ ~ ~

  Chapter Ten

  Aaron escorted Lydia in through the door. She'd come rushing down after they'd started the program, but couldn't get in on her own.

  “So it worked?” she asked.

  Aaron nodded.

  “Looks like it did. The firewall is a hell of a mess now. It was flickering even before we started our program, so we got right in.”

  “Do we want to lock the door now?” Lydia asked. “He can still get back out, right?”

  “Probably, but it would take him a bit to figure out how,” Aaron replied.

  Lydia waved a thumb drive.

  “If that connection is solid now, and not bouncing around like it normally does, we could lock the door and weld it shut with this.”

  “What is it?”

  Lydia shrugged.

  “In my younger days I wasn't nearly as upstanding as I am now.”

  Aaron prevented a snicker.

  Her younger days? What as a teenager? A pre-teen? he thought.

  “And...” he said.

  “Well, I've kept up a few contacts and updated my programs whenever new stuff came out, so if we want we can shut down his connection for good, fry the adapter that allows it. Okay, maybe not if he's got a jack for a hard line to a connection, but we can remove the ability to access anything wirelessly.”

  “Wait, you used to be a hacker?” Aaron asked.

  Lydia blushed.

  “It was interesting, I was bored. So, do we want to do this? Assuming the hardware for the connection there is at all similar to the standards, this should do it.”

  “It won't hurt him, will it?”

  “How do I know? I haven't seen the specs for the cerebral implant.”

  Aaron grimaced.

  “Alright, let's do it. Otherwise he'll be able to get out sooner or later.”

  “Well, with the firewall allowing entry of data, but not exit now, it'd take him a while.”

  “Yeah, but what would he do if he did make it out and figured out what happened? Either Greenshaw or Loki for that matter,” Aaron said.

  Lydia quickly plugged the flash drive into Aaron's computer, pointing out which program she'd been talking about.

  ~ ~ ~

  Eddie nocked and fired an arrow in a single motion, only to see it drop to the floor on this side of the invisible wall, the arrow only causing the slightest of flickers to the wall. Cooper raced forward and tried to push his arm through it, only to be rebuffed.

  Eddie looked for his rope, only to realize that it was still dangling on the side of the palace.

  “Anyone got a rope?” he called.

  There was no answer, which he took as a no. A glance to the other side of the wall showed him that things were getting dangerous for the two of the party who were over there.

  The Champion backed off as the king approached. With the two side by side Eddie saw a distinct resemblance.

  If you stretched a goblin out and gave it trollish featur
es. Ewww, is the troll its father? Eddie wondered, before pulling his attention back to the problem at hand.

  “We need to help them somehow,” Eddie said. “Ferring, can you toss spells from your position in the air? Reach them at all?”

  The answer came in a trio of green balls, acrid smelling this time, that went flying towards the king, over the top of the invisible wall. As they struck, the king roared his displeasure as the balls burned into his body.

  “Yeah, we can go over. My spells won't do squat though, I don't do enough damage with them for it to matter,” Ferring called back.

  “Can you levitate someone else though?” Eddie asked.

  Ferring grinned.

  “One flying fire mage coming up.”

  Dominic started to protest, but Ferring made a gesture and Dominic's feet rose off the ground.

  “Hold still,” Ferring said. “Once you're high enough I'll stabilize you and it'll feel like you've got a platform under your feet.”

  Dominic rose into the air, sputtering as he went.

  “Can you do more? Get a healer up there?” Eddie asked.

  “Nope, two's my limit, and one has to be me,” Ferring replied distractedly, focusing on lifting Dominic.

  “Shit!” Eddie cursed, then set himself back to thinking about the problem.

  The king and Charles were in combat now, Campbell standing back, but keeping an eye on the Champion and ready to intercede if they tried to double team Charles.

  Eddie's eyes flew open.

  “We're going to lose the drops on the Giant Wolf, I think, but I've got a plan,” he called out. “I need someone to help me move the wolf corpse.”

  Cooper and Ephram were over with him in a moment, helping him tug the wolf corpse up against the troll's wall.

  “Alright guys, back up, would you? Not sure this is going to work.”

  Eddie focused on the wolf's corpse. He knew that decomposing corpses could have things grow on them and hoped it was sufficient for this.

  Cast wall of thorns, he thought, guiding the wall to be only as wide as the wolf's corpse with the thorns facing the wall, then trying to get it to stretch up and over the fifteen foot high wall.