by Jason Cheek
Stripped down to his gray leather pants and a black-studded vest, Norrid played the two massive Orc drums that were nearly as large as he was with everything he had. Sweat poured down the smooth-talking muscular Dwarf’s hairy chest and bearded face as he physically attacked the massive drums before him with thick wooden sticks gripped firmly in each of his black-gloved hands. The immense effort he was giving was almost hypnotic to watch. The fast tempo forced Norrid to dance quickly from drum to drum to keep up with the intense beat that rang out across the city of Darom and the fields before its walls, while his powerful deep guttural voice never stopped its complex song.
Norrid’s singing was just as odd as the drumming. The sound came from deep down in the Dwarf’s barrel-shaped chest and sometimes moved to what seemed like his throat. None of the words were in the Common that she knew, but in what she could only surmise was a native Dwarven tongue that she’d never heard before. Still, it somehow seemed to perfectly flow with the heavy drumming beat and combined perfectly with Zinn’s piercing soprano.
Alanah had never seen her friend like this before. Not even when the young Gnomeling had been singing with Ayda in the middle of the storm as the massive waves crashed over the Wind Dancer’s deck. Standing proudly behind Norrid, Zinn’s voice merged flawlessly with the Dwarf’s drumming as it was enhanced by the magic drums to reach far and wide. Instead of using her Djembe hand drum, she had her lute slung across the front of her chest as her fingers thrummed with the same intensity as that of Norrid’s dancing beat.
Just like the Dwarf, Zinn had stripped down to almost nothing. All that she wore was her brown thigh-high Gnomeling boots and the soft-gray, leather baby doll dress that was now plastered to her sweaty body along with her long honey-blonde hair that hung down her back in a thick ponytail. Her gray half-cloak was gone from her shoulders as were the white leather gloves-like sleeves that she usually wore for performances. Even so, the sweat still poured down Zinn’s cheeks and ran her chin in rivulets from the effort that it took to keep up with the more experienced Dwarven Bard.
The most amazing part of their effort was that both Bards had been performing at the same intensity since this early morning. Meaning, as the sun began to set, that they’d been going at it for thirteen hours straight now. A feat that would’ve been impossible if not for the Half-Oni’s incredible alchemical potions that he’d shared out to the defenders before riding away. Because of that endless Endurance, the pair’s incredible magic stopped the newfar completely in their tracks. While Alanah had known that Bards wielded powerful magics, she’d never heard of them pulling off such an amazing feat except in the stories of old.
Unfortunately, their amazing feat was soon going to come to an end. Both Bards had taken the last of the amazing elixir half an hour earlier, which meant they were on a countdown. As soon as their current potions ran out, Alanah had no doubt both Zinn and Norrid would collapse in a heap from the immense effort that they’d both been giving throughout the day. Töten had warned ahead of time that the built-up exhaustion would hit the Bards all at once when the potions ran out, the Half-Oni had assured her that he’d be back with help by then.
While Sub-Leaders Tericius and Butcher were both beyond stunned by the effect that the Taiko Drums of Despair had on their enemies, in a way, Alanah was unsurprised that the newfar attack had all but faltered. Even now, she could still clearly remember the crushing feeling of despair that had sapped everyone’s courage and morale on the deck of the Wind Dancer, when she’d first heard their terrifying beat from the Orc triremes chasing after them in the Strait of Icelus. If not for Ayda and Zinn’s efforts, she was sure the battle would’ve gone very differently.
Mügor had explained that the demoralizing effect was caused by the magic enchanted into the drums themselves. That was because Orcs didn’t have Bards as a class in the typical sense of the word. At least, not Bards like Zinn, Norrid, or Ayda, which was why the demoralizing effects of the drums were so much more pervasive in Norrid’s skilled hands than with any Orc’s.
That didn’t mean the newfar weren’t attacking, Alanah thought with a derisive snort, as another cascade of lightning, poison, and flame blasts swept the ramparts in front of her. Töten had assured them that the Chaos Storm Alliance had no knowledge of illusions and would believe that it was high-resistances stopping their spells from damaging the troopers on the walls, not an illusion hiding the trooper’s true positions. The simple deception was enhanced by the Taiko Drums of Despair and made the newfar that much slower to respond and hesitant to take outright risks, especially after having whole swaths of them get cut down by anti-siege crossbows.
The massive illusion that both Bards were weaving made the attackers think that there was a solid gate blocking the entrance into the city, when, in fact, there was nothing. Alanah didn’t fully understand how the Bards had built the illusion for the gate. In a brief respite from singing, Zinn had told her that she and Norrid had layered one illusion on top of another. Doing so somehow allowed the defenders to clearly see the advancing newfar and to fill them with bolts from their anti-siege crossbows whenever they tried storming the main gate to bust it down.
Töten’s advice hadn’t stopped there. The Half-Oni had also suggested a number of non-magical constructs and nasty traps to counteract the newfar’s powerful magics. The iron spikes alone had done wonders at keeping the Bards and the defensive line arrayed before the main gate safe.
While many of these surprises were still being constructed throughout the city by both the surviving troopers and civilians from Telrain and Darom, which Lord Ironwolf had rescued, the trap before the main gate had thankfully been completed, even if she couldn’t see them with the illusion currently in place. Still, it gave her hope that they might be able to hold out long enough for Lord Ironwolf and the rest of the House of Kayden Troopers to arrive. Though, that opened up a whole slew of new problems to worry about.
Alanah let out a heavy sigh. For now, she could only do her best to focus on one problem at a time. That being the three thousand newfar that were attacking the city. In all honesty, she’d expected them to have breached the walls well before now. It was pure luck that they hadn’t realized the deception being used against them. Glancing over at Zinn and Norrid, Alanah knew their time was quickly running out, when she suddenly noticed an odd rumbling sound growing in the distance.
Chapter Twenty-Two
(Julie Bowen, aka Cristiane Sekhmet and Guild Leader of the Chaos Storm, standing in field before the main gates to the city of Darom.)
“Seriously, how can beating a freaking drum reduce all stats by fifteen percent,” Julie Bowen swore out loud as she glared at the debuff in her HUD, “This is complete bullshit!”
“No clue,” Apoxsee said from where he was watching the bombardment, “They didn’t use them before when they took over the city.”
“It was more of a rhetorical question,” Julie grumpily said, as the Dread Pack Guild Leader gave her an indifferent shrug.
“The better question is how many more hours straight can they keep beating those drums,” Apoxsee mused as Julie glared at the cocky man in annoyance.
“They’re drums,” Julie said in a tone that more or less conveyed the idea that he was an idiot, “Seriously, how hard do you think it is to get a bunch of NPCs to beat on a bunch of cans?”
“The Taiko Drums of Despair,” Apoxsee said, making air quotes for the name of the debuff, “doesn’t sound like beating on a bunch of cans.” Ignoring the infuriated look that flashed across Julie’s face, he continued nonchalantly. “That sounds more like something a Bard type of class would play.”
“What-the-fuck-ever,” Julie snarled, frustrated at being unable to clear the fog that seemed to be gumming up her mind. Before she could comment further, she saw Kasey JoJo, aka the Executioner, walk out from the edge of the forest ahead of the rest of her guild officers and what looked to be the complete force of two thousand that had been sent with them. Ignoring the foreboding
feeling that ran down her spine at seeing most them missing a good portion of their primary armor and weapons, she called out to her Guild Officers, “What happened? I thought you guys were busy taking over one of the graveyards inside the city!”
“Yeah, that’s not happening any time soon,” Sodonon Yoshiyuki angrily said as she stepped out from behind Kasey’s back.
“Sodo has the right of it,” Ruston Clark, another Assassin Rogue, added as he fell in beside his virtual twin Sodonon, “Those NPCs have the graveyards locked down tight.”
“Oh, come on, they’re just a bunch of NPCs,” Julie unbelievingly said, as if they couldn’t have tried everything possible, “I doublechecked myself, Starfairy took all of his people with him when he left Darom.”
“I did too,” Noah Stanislas sourly agreed, from where the DPS Warrior brought up the rear, “It doesn’t make any sense, we didn’t have anywhere near this much trouble taking over Telrain.”
“We fucking lost five damn levels,” Kasey growled, his face darkening in rage as he began stomping over to where Julie stood. Seeing the confused look that flashed across Julie’s face, the Executioner angrily continued. “There were hundreds of fucking NPCs waiting for us to spawn in at the graveyards to cut us down.”
“Huh, imagine that, a bunch of NPCs ambushed you at the graveyard and your entire guild losing a bunch of levels,” Apoxsee mockingly said from where he stood off to the side watching with several of his fellow guild officers, “What kind of idiots would fall for something as simple as that?”
“Shut your goddamn mouth Apoxsee,” Kasey roared, as he charged across the frozen ground for the smirking Dread Pack Guild Leader, “before I shut it for you!” Instead of snatching the asshole up by the front of his cloak, the surprised Shadow Warrior found himself stumbling forward to grasp at nothing but air as the slippery DPS Warrior easily sidestepped his Charge.
“Or what, you’re going to show me your third or is that your fourth back-up weapon,” Apoxsee sarcastically asked, as he dodged Kasey’s follow-up grab and sent the off-balanced Shadow Warrior sprawling onto the frozen snow with a precise shove to the back of his shoulder, “I figured you’d have learned your lesson after losing your precious Executioner's Axe to the infamous Starfairy.”
“Like you have much of anything to fucking say about that,” Kasey hatefully snarled as he sprang to his feet, “Mr. I lost my Vampiric Bastard Sword of Slaughter along with the whole fucking town of Darom.”
“Really, weren’t you the dickless wonder that kept telling us how easy it was going to be to retake the city from a bunch of dumb NPCs,” Apoxsee asked, completely unperturbed as he crossed his arms over his chest with a sneer of disdain at the group of Chaos Storm officers, “I at least managed to cut your infamous Starfairy down a number of times before being pushed out of Darom by overwhelming force.”
“Fuck you man,” Kasey spat, “it was a completely different situation in Telrain and you know it-”
“Would the two of you dipshits shut your fucking mouths,” Julie shouted, cutting both men off with a glare as she stepped in-between the two groups, “or do you want to whip out your dicks now and get the measuring contest over with so we can get on with the siege?” Waiting a moment for her words to sink in, she continued in a calmer tone.
“Look, I’m sorry about the attitude,” Julie said, doing her best to swallow her pride as she silently reminded herself that she would do whatever was needed to take Jay down, “but that drumming is driving me up the fucking wall.” Pressing her fingers to her temples, she took a deep breath before continuing. “Look, all of us signed up to be digital mercenaries and know the score. If we want to get that fat bonus we were promised, we have to take this asshole out and finish screwing up this fucking game.” Letting out a heavy sigh, she looked between Apoxsee and her guild officers. “So, lose the attitude and let’s figure out how we’re going to do that?” Getting nods from both groups, she pointed at Kasey. “Now, tell us what happened at the graveyards?”
“We were fucked as soon as we respawned back in,” Kasey said in an angry huff, “those fucking NPCs built an eight-foot wall around each graveyard and had several hundred crossbow and archer troopers just waiting for us to show up.” The Shadow Warrior’s eyes swept over Apoxsee’s group daring one of them to say something before continuing. “We hurt them bad, but they also had Priests backing them up with heals and troopers with spears to push us back whenever we tried to climb the walls. The biggest F.U. was when I went to use my Shadow Jump to get behind them and realized that I’d lost more than one level.”
“What the hell is up with that anyway?” Sodonon angrily bitched, “I thought that you could only lose up to one level for attacking an NPC city.”
“Son of a bitch, it must not be an NPC city anymore,” Julie swore as her eyes narrowed in thought, “That asshole must have figured out a way to get control of a city.”
“A starter NPC city?” Apoxsee asked in shock. They’d had control of the city for a week but never actually owned it, “I didn’t think that was even possible.”
“Could it be if all of the NPCs swore allegiance to you?” Noah asked, looking around the circle for confirmation.
“So, does that mean we can capture the city too and make it our own?” Apoxsee wondered out loud.
“We forced them to work for us as slaves easy enough,” Amron Bungholio said from where he was standing next to his guild leader, “why not have them swear on their lives or be put to death?”
“Why are we even worrying about any of this,” Kit Kat asked in annoyance as he stepped up beside Apoxsee, “Are we still giving this city up to the Orcs?”
“Not after losing Telrain,” Julie said through gritted teeth, “Besides, it’s not like we weren’t always going to backstab those NPCs anyway. We’re just going to do it sooner rather than later.” Seeing Apoxsee’s surprised look, she gave him an apologetic shrug. “I don’t care who keeps ownership of the city. We just can’t let it fall into Starfairy’s hands or that of the Orcs.”
“In that case,” Apoxsee carefully said, after trading a few questioning looks with the guild officers standing around him, “I might have an idea as to why the siege is failing.”
“What the hell are you talking about,” Julie aggressively asked as a crazy look came into her eyes, “Did you fucking betray us or-”
“Whoa there, that’s not it at all,” Apoxsee said, holding up his hands defensively and stepping back, “It’s just common-sense shit.” Seeing the dangerous looks he was getting from the Chaos Storm officers standing around them, he hurriedly explained. “Look at the main gate to the city,” the Dread Pack Guild Leader pointed towards the undamaged barrier, “we burnt the previous gate down in a matter of hours. You can’t tell me that our combined magic attacks wouldn’t have done it quicker this time around. You get what I’m saying?” He unflinchingly met the angry eyes looking back at him. “It’s the damn drumming, that means they have to have Bards backing up the defenders inside the city.”
“I still don’t get it,” Kasey said in annoyance as several of the other younger Chaos Storm Alliance officers nodded in agreement, “What’s the big deal about Bards?” The last word was said in a spooky voice as the Shadow Warrior waved his hands in the air.
“Come on, it looks like the same exact gate that we destroyed a few days ago,” Apoxsee said as if that explained everything, “Seriously, how would that even be possible?” He pointed at Noah. “How did they cut you down as you were running up to the wall? Did the crossbow bolts come straight at you head-on or was it from the side?”
“I think it was from head-on now that you ask,” Noah haltingly said as he tried to think back to his assault on the main gate earlier that day.
“I get what you’re saying,” Julie said in an annoyed tone, before anyone else could speak up, “but this isn’t Dungeons and Dragons-”
“Isn’t it on some level,” Apoxsee asked, cutting her off as he arched an eyebrow at her, “I
watched a snippet that one of my guildmates suggested after we lost the city.” Glancing around to make sure he had everyone’s attention, he turned back to Julie before continuing. “It showed your nemesis having one of his low-level Bards creating an illusion so he could resurrect some NPCs.”
“Why the fuck would he need an illusion to resurrect NPCs?” Kasey scoffed.
“That’s not the point,” Apoxsee snapped, giving the Shadow Warrior an annoyed look, “It’s that-”
“It’s possible,” Julie finished for Apoxsee, signifying that she understood his point. With a thoughtful look, she eyed the city thinking over his words. “So, the reason we haven’t been able to kill any of these NPCs on the walls could simply be because we can’t actually see where they are?”
“How in the hell do we fight something like that,” Sodonon asked, frowning as she tried to wrap her head around what Apoxsee was saying.
“By melee combat,” Julie said, as she grinned wickedly.
“That’s what I was thinking, or-” Apoxsee paused, when an odd ruckus started coming from the forest behind them interrupted whatever he was going to say.
“What in the … hell,” Julie swore at the sight before her eyes as she turned around with the rest of her people, just in time to see a lone rider burst out of the forest on the back of a Nightmare.
At least, in Julie’s mind, that’s how she named the unearthly stead as time seemed to slow as her eyes took everything in. The monstrous mount’s glowing-red eyes. It's mane and tail of living fire flicking in the wind. Flaming hooves that kicked up steaming divots from the frozen ground with every impact. The rider’s large demon-headed shield and two-handed warhammer that shifted towards them as the full-faced horned helm focused in on their group in the middle of the field. As Julie’s eyes were just taking in the shredded blood-red cape flapping behind the armored rider’s back and the plethora of broken shafts sticking out of the heavy armor, monsters began flooding out of the forest behind him.
