The True Enemy Revealed

by Jason Cheek

  “Look, I’m making monster grapes.” he called out happily, holding his boot up for his friends to see. “Oh look, there’s another one.”

  “I got one here too!” Tigner called out a second later as he slammed his foot down on the helpless baby that couldn’t even see or, let alone, walk yet. “Damn, these things don’t give any freaking experience.”

  “Yeah, they’re grays.” Rasmussen confirmed, as he stomped on another mewling baby.

  “I swear you losers are a bunch of murderhobos.” Arthur spat in disgust at the noobs, as Tigner began tossing aside the debris as he caught sight of another helpless baby.

  “I joined this game to see new monsters and kill them horribly.” Tigner joked back with an unconcerned grin. “Might as well kill them now to stop anyone else from getting the experience. It’s not like Darom is going to be around for much longer.”

  “There is that,” Arthur agreed, still uncomfortable at the senseless death of what basically amounted to baby-like kittens. As all the Dread Pack members began laughing at Tigner’s crude joke, Zinn’s voice growled in Mugorlorth’s ear.

  “By the dark, we’re going to slaughter the lot of them.”

  Before either Mugorlorth or Tavon could spin around and stop her, Zinn’s voice rose in volume as she drew her daggers and launched herself at the back of the nearest newfar. The two males only had a split second to understand the implications of the little Gnomeling’s actions. While neither man was upset at the idea of slaughtering these wicked newfar, they both understood there were too many for them to take-on alone. As they both looked back at Alanah trying to decide what they should do, the Priestess simply pointed towards the enraged Gnomeling clinging to the Human man’s back.

  “There’s no choice now.” Alanah said, her eyes wide from fear. “We have to help her.”

  Stepping forward, Mugorlorth threw himself bodily at the back of the Human’s legs, back first. As the man fell backwards over the top of him, he rammed his bastard sword into the other man’s groin as Zinn leaped at her next target. As her thighs wrapped around the surprised man’s neck and his head was buried into her cleavage, she began hammering her daggers into the back of his head, while Tavon’s mace came down in a two handed strike on the downed man’s head. The blow popped the level 14 man’s head like an overripe melon as Mugorlorth rolled to his feet.

  Lunging forward, his bastard sword punched through the second man’s chest armor as the monster babies’ parents chose that moment to attack. Rasmussen’s horrified scream of agony pulled the raids attention from them as a dark gray shadow suddenly enveloped the newfar’s head. The warrior began clawing at the creature on his face as multiple gray shadows appeared throughout the Dread Pack players.

  The dark creatures seemed to pass through the newfar doing no damage at all as the Dread Pack players flailed around helplessly. Some even striking their friends as Arthur yelled into raid chat for everyone to ignore the illusions and focus on the real enemy. He was just ordering two of his men to help Rasmussen, when a dark shadow tackled Tigner to the ground. The Rogues agonizing screams made the raid pause as they fearfully started ducking away from the dark shadows leaping at their faces.

  Shrieking out orders, Arthur got his people moving. Shoving another two men towards the howling Rogue, he rallied the rest of them to attack the large centaur laying waste to his men, while he called for everyone in the raid to ignite their Flame Shields. The first two men sent to help Rasmussen finally reached his side. Their blades flailed at the gray creature’s back, forcing it to leap away from its victim as they pulled the wide-eyed warrior back to his feet.

  Rivulets of blood ran from Rasmussen’s face as he leaned heavily on his rescuers. One eye had been completely ripped from his head, while most of the skin on his face hung from his cheeks like shredded papier-mâché. Although he looked like a half-dead wreck, he’d only lost a third of his hit points as he reeled from the brutal assault. They were just retreating back to the main group, when the bleeding creature leaped on one of his helper’s faces.

  “Let’s grab any of the surviving babies and run!” Zinn urgently cried out as she backed away from the wall of newfar trying to surround them. Even though Alanah was keeping Holy Shields up on all of them, Zinn, Tavon, and Mugorlorth were being hard pressed as they fell back fighting for their lives. The only thing they could do was put their back to the wall of debris. For a moment, it actually looked like they might be able to hold out, when leader lit up with flames.

  The rest of the Dread Pack players screamed in agony, before finally listening to the Rogue to cast their own Flame Shield. Within a few seconds, the Brat Pack was scrambling for the far side of the stable with their armor on fire as Alanah did her best to keep everyone alive. If not for the Kopy-Katze blindly throwing themselves at the Dread Pack players in their rage, they would have been burned to death from the Fire Strikes blasting from the raid and setting the barn on-fire.

  Unfortunately, there was nowhere for them to go. As they turned around to look for another exit, they saw a grinning Arthur stalking after them with a flaming hand held out towards them. “Now this was what I was talking about!” He said smugly. As if that had been some sort of signal, the roof above his head suddenly imploded.

  Mugorlorth watched in amazement as a massive red and coppery shadow came plunging down into the stable. A tattered red cloak, thick plate armor, and bull-horned helmet was all that he could make out, before a massive two-handed hammer slammed into the earthen ground at the warriors feet. The impact blasted Arthur and the rest of the Dread Pack players off their feet from the force of the impact.

  Rising to his feet, the humongous, fully armored warrior swung the oversized Warhammer above his head and spun around to slam it into Arthur’s vulnerable head. The blow crushed the Dread Pack raid leader’s head into red-pulp as he brought the terrible weapon around in a backhanded blow to crush another man’s head. The Dread Pack members’ Flame Shield did nothing to stop the massive damage being dealt to them as the brutal warrior laid waste to all of those around him.

  The warrior also wielded a massive bronze and iron shield as if it were light as a feather. More than one of the Dread Pack newfar were blasted off their feet, only to be crushed a moment later by a follow-up hammer strike to the chest or face. None of them survived more than one hit from the warrior’s primary weapon.

  A few of the braver newfar hit the warrior repeatedly with their Fire Strikes at point blank range, while the rest howled in fear as they tried to run away. None of them made it more than a few steps, before the earth buckled under their feet from another massive hammer strike to the ground. Struggling to rise to their feet, the newfar screamed in fear and begged for their lives. Unmoved by their pleas, each met the same fate as the avenging warrior laid waste to the surviving members of the raid in less than a minute.

  Turning around, the fearsome warrior’s eyes ran over the four of them, before taking in the burning building about to collapse. Lifting the two-handed Warhammer over his head, the armored warrior heaved the massive weapon directly at them with all his might. Mugorlorth covered his head as the wall blew out behind them with a tremendous roar. Anxiously looking behind him, Mugorlorth was shocked to see the night’s sky behind them.

  There was a shimmer as the massive Warhammer disappeared before his eyes. Turning back around, he was just in time to see the giant catch the massive Warhammer, before striding into the roaring fire at the far end of the stables as if the flames meant nothing to him. Turning away from the incredible sight, the Half-Orc staggered to his feet, dragging Zinn up next to him. They both helped Tavon back to his hooves, before Zinn gave Alanah a helping hand. As the Half-Elf began casting heals, Zinn urgently turned towards the burning stable.

  “We’ve got to see if any of the babies survived!” Zinn cried out, as she urgently ran to the pile of rubble and began going through the debris from the fallen roof.

  “These kopy-katze aren’t worth your life.” Mug
orlorth roared in frustration at the crazy Gnomeling.

  “You don’t understand, Mug,” Zinn cried out, as the tears streamed down her cheeks. “We need them for the House of Kayden.” Seeing the Half-Orc’s confused look, she tried again. “We need them to strengthen your War Leader so he can crush his enemies and save his people!”

  “Why didn’t you say that in the first place?” Mugorlorth exclaimed with a growl of anger. Stepping up beside her, the Half-Orc began tossing the debris aside as the fire burned his skin. “Come on, we can do this faster if we work together.”

  They found several ruined bodies before coming across a mewing gray form. Coughing in the smoke, Zinn hurriedly scooped up the baby monster into the front of her dress as they moved on. Mugorlorth worked quickly, hacking his lungs out as Zinn crawled on her knees. Several times her hair caught fire, but he managed to get it out before it did more than scare her. Working together in this way, they found another four more tiny bodies.

  The Half-Orc was almost blindly fumbling around for the next piece of debris to move out of the way, when Zinn urgently pulled him back. Together, they blindly staggered to the back wall where the hole had been made. Dark smoke billowed around them as Tavon’s strong hands pulled them out into the clean air, while Alanah hit them both with her healing magic.

  Collapsing to the ground in sheer exhaustion, Zinn urgently waved Alanah over to heal the five precious bundles in her lap. With a few quick hand gestures, she cast a heal on all of them as their hit points began to go back up. While the rest of the brat pack all gathered around the gray, blind forms pitifully mewing for their mother, Zinn gently hugged them to her chest as the tears rolled down her face. Her red, swollen eyes looked up at them apologetically.

  “Please forgive me, I should have never rushed into that room to fight those horrid creeps.” Zinn said, as the tears flowed freely down her cheeks. “These kopy-katze weren’t worth losing anyone one of you for.”

  “Next time, how about we plan our strategy better before you go rushing in?” Tavon said tactfully as Alanah smacked his arm warningly.

  “You made the call and we followed,” Mugorlorth replied simply. “Though, I’d prefer to understand how these monsters will help War Leader Ironwolf in his battles.” Gently picking up one of the gray blobs, he held it up to get a better look at the beast, when a tiny voice suddenly sounded in his head.

  “Momma! Papa!”

  At least, that was the impression Mugorlorth got from the mental touch that gripped his scarred heart as the pitiful creature reached out its furry arms towards him. In that instant, a great sadness came over him in a rush. Emotion filled images flashed through his mind of the tiny beast’s parents fighting against the evil men. In those scenes, he saw the kopy-katze multiply to ten as their illusion magic activated. How he knew that the Half-Orc couldn’t say, but, nonetheless, he had the knowledge. In those terrible images, Mugorlorth saw him and his friends fighting off the evil men and saving the babies from the beast’s perspective.

  “Protect!”

  Not feeling the tears streaming down his hard face, the Half-Orc incredulously hugged the mewling creature to his breast as he felt his soul suddenly make a deep connection with the tiny beast. Seeing the shocked look on her friend’s face, Zinn smiled triumphantly and began passing one of the creatures to each of her friends, keeping the last two for herself. As they all felt the mental link with the tiny creature in their hands, the little Gnomeling met her friends’ eyes with a broad smile.

  “Kopy-katze are the pets of kings and queens,” Zinn explained. “They are exceedingly rare and can send a message to anyone in the world, regardless of how far away they are.”

  The clanging of an alarm bell off in the distance brought them back to the situation at hand. Realizing that there was no time to lose, they jumped to their feet and got moving. Zinn instantly took command of the situation and headed back down the hill. Carefully holding the tiny monsters that had just imprinted on their souls to their chests, they hurried off after the little Gnomeling as she searched for Sub-Leader Butcher. The Sub-Leader had to be given the information about the Dread Pack menace and their plans. Glancing back one last time at the burning stable, Mugorlorth wondered how they would explain the mysterious warrior that had saved them.

  **The adventure continues in “Book Six” coming soon**

  Character Sheet

  Startum Ironwolf – Level 35

  Difficulty: Nightmare Start

  Half-Elf: House of Kayden

  Class: Empty

  Profession Title: Necromancer (Dark Magic)

  Titles:

  First Settler

  First Village

  Hero of Delonshire Mine

  Leader of House Kayden

  Lord of BrokenFang Hold

  Worm Slayer

  Tribal Leader

  Mine Boss

  Noble Guardian

  Ship’s Captain

  Protector of Auris Shaeras

  Orc Slayer

  Sekolahian Bane

  Beastkin Brother

  Noble Defender

  Scourge of the Dishonorable

  Statistics:

  Hit Points: 2,552

  Mana: 3,700

  Endurance: 2,340

  Attributes:

  Strength: 100 (+86)

  Intelligence: 181 (+171)

  Spirit: 106 (+71)

  Agility: 120 (+30)

  Stamina: 150 (+82)

  Charisma: 78

  16 Unassigned Attribute Points.

  Racial Ability:

  Adaptable Survivability (Passive) – All defenses increased by 5% and total hit points are increased 10%.

  Darkvision (Passive) - Grants ability to see in day-light conditions up to 100 feet in reduced lighting and the ability to see in dim light conditions up to 60 feet in natural darkness.

  Ambitious (Passive) - Receive 5% experience bonus when gaining experience.

  Racial Modifiers - +2 to two stats of choice per level.

  Abilities:

  Frost Magic – Level 32

  Light Magic – Level 34

  Fire Magic – Level 18

  Dark Magic – Level 26

  Water Shaman – Level 13

  Nature Magic – Level 30

  Unarmed Combat – Level 24

  One-hand edge – Level 33

  Two-hand edge – Level 17

  Shield Block - Level 33

  Shield Bash – Level 33

  Riposte – Level 32

  Lunge – Level 32

  Parry – Level 33

  Dodge – Level 33

  Archery – Level 13

  War Leader:

  Level II – Strategist:

  -Plus 2% Increase to melee damage for team or raid.

  -Plus 1% Increase to melee defense for team or raid.

  Spells:

  Frost:

  Frost Blast (30 Mana) – 2 sec cast – Launches Blast of frost at enemy. Damage is 200% of Spell Power. Slows target by 50% for 15 seconds. Range 60 yards.

  Frost Nova (50 Mana) – Instant cast - Blasts enemies within 10 yards of the caster for 100% Spell power and freezes them in place for up to 8 sec. This spell does not affect friendlies within range of the AOE. Damage caused may interrupt the effect. 30 second cool down. Requires frost magic skill level 5.

  Ice Lance (40 Mana) – Instant cast - Deals 400% Spell power to an enemy target. Ice Lance damage is doubled against frozen targets. Slows target by 50% for 15 seconds. Requires frost magic skill level 10. Range 40 yards.

  Flurry (60 Mana) – Instant cast – Hurls a flurry of ice shards at target that strikes enemy 3 times for a total of ((400% of spell power) * 3). Each shard slows target by 50% for 5 sec. Requires frost magic skill level 15. Range 40 yards.

  Ice Barrier (30 Mana) – Instant cast – Shields caster for 1 minute, absorbing 1400% ranged spell damage. Melee attacks against caster reduces the attacker’s movement speed by 50% for 5 seconds. Armor Class is not increas
ed. Requires frost magic skill level 20. 20 second cool down.

  Ice Barrage (100 Mana) – 4 sec cast –Releases a storm of ice on targeted area. Spell power is 1600% Spell Power. All targets in area of effect have movement slowed by 50% for duration of cast or an additional 5 seconds if they leave the area of effect. 30 second cool down. Area of effect is 10 yards. Requires frost magic skill level 30. Any direct damage will cancel the cast. Range 100 yards.

  *Special Attack – (600 Mana) - Can be continuously channeled for up to 30 seconds for continuous 1600% spell damage every 5 seconds. 30 second cool down.

  Light:

  Heal (50 Mana) – 10 sec cast – Ray of golden light that heals target for 500% Spell Power. Range 60 yards.

  Quick Heal (30 Mana) – 5 sec cast – A pulse of golden light that quickly heals target for 300% Spell Power. Requires healing magic skill level 5. Range 60 yards.

  Restore (40 Mana) – 3 sec cast – A flash of golden light that instantly heals target for (50% of Spell power) and then (300% of Spell power) over 15 sec. Requires healing magic skill level 10. Range 40 yards.

  Minor Healing (60 Mana) – 5 sec cast – A ray of golden light that instantly heals target for 800% Spell Power. Requires healing magic skill level 15. Range 60 yards.

  Minor Mend Bones (80 Mana) – 10 sec cast – A healing energy that heals target of minor debilitating debuffs 200% Spell Power. Requires healing magic skill level 15. Range 60 yards.

  Minor Dispel (60 Mana) – 5 sec cast – Removes one beneficial magical effect on enemy target, or removes one negative magical effect on friendly target. Requires healing magic skill level 15. Range 60 yards.

  Holy Shield (80 Mana) – 3 sec cast – Absorbs 350 points of damage. Requires healing magic skill level 20. Can only be cast on one target at a time. 10 second cool down. Expires automatically after a half an hour. Range 60 yards.