Though Sasha had already received her training, she stepped toward the wizard. He placed a hand on her head and a moment later she began to laugh. As the wizard waggled his eyebrows at her, she said, “The old goat just raised my cooking skill to ten! And gave me a dozen new recipes.”
Lainey’s eyes widened. “All those times you’ve demanded one of us cook for you and you could easily have done better yourself?”
Fitz shrugged. “What would be the fun in that? I’m an old man. It’s only fitting you young ones should pamper me. As payment for the pleasure of my company.” Rufus rolled onto his back atop the wizards hat, holding his belly and emitting a chittering laugh. Fitz’s eyes rolled up, as if looking at the little familiar, and he snorted.
“Yes, well.” Fitz cleared his throat as he waved a hand at Rufus in a shooing motion. “I think it’s about time we continued on.”
Sasha agreed, and soon had everyone back in formation. Brick and his still-shining shield led the way across the cavern. On the other side was a thick ironwood door with deep gouges in it. Brick tried to pull it open, but found it locked. Max stepped forward and produced his lock picks. Moments later, the lock clicked and the door opened slightly on its own. He stepped back and let it swing open fully.
Brick shouted, “Look out!” and shoved Max through into the darkness beyond. The ranger, caught by surprise, stumbled and fell on his butt. He looked around frantically for whatever danger Brick had spotted, scrambling to his feet and nocking an arrow.
A quiet chuckle from Brick grew into a full-belly laugh. “Bwahaha! Ye should see yer face!”
“What the…? Dammit! There could have been a monster in here. Or a dozen drow!” Max shot looks over both shoulders as he yelled at his friend.
Brick put on his best innocent face. “Aye. If ye’d been killed ta death, our king woulda got a chance ta test his new magic!”
The indignant look left Max’s face as he began to chuckle along with his friend. “Well played, sir.”
Brick stepped into the room, the light from his shield illuminating a small chamber with a stairwell leading down. He proceeded down the stairs, which only took them maybe thirty feet lower than the level they’d just left. Just as he reached the bottom step, a grinding sound could be heard. The step underneath him settled about six inches, stopping with a click. Ten steps above him, spikes shot out from the walls in a wide swathe. Players and NPCs were skewered, pinned to the opposite side of the stairwell. Most of those who’d been standing in that area were casters. Martin and one of the other healers, Misty, and one of the minotaurs were impaled in various places. Worst of all, Fibble let out a squeal as one of the spikes drove through his shoulder and pinned him to the wall.
Max immediately went to work on the trap, pushing Brick off the step and lifting the top cover to examine the mechanism. After some tinkering, the spikes withdrew back into the wall, peeling off their victims as they did. None of them had been killed outright, though Misty had a nasty gut wound from the spike driving through her side and out her back. The healers went to work, but their comrades’ health bars weren’t rising.
Fitz lifted Fibble and took a sniff of his wound. “Poison. Drow poison.”
Sasha and Lydia had prepared for this. They’d concocted and distributed large quantities of the poison’s antidote to the various allied cities. She reached into her bag and withdrew several vials, handing one to each of the stricken.
Fitz poured Fibble’s vial down his throat. The little goblin had lost consciousness and was down to twenty percent health. As soon as the potion reached his gut, the little guy coughed and opened his eyes. His health bar stopped draining and Fitz cast a heal on him that immediately brought him back to one hundred percent.
Fibble hugged the wizard, causing him to sputter and blush. Fitz set Fibble down quickly and turned away, pretending to check on the others.
While the injured recovered, Max inspected the only door that led out of the room. “No traps here that I can see. Though I won’t promise there isn’t one on the other side.”
Brick had the others stand back and took his spot in front of the door. Max pulled it open and jumped back, readying his bow.
Brick’s shield illuminated… a stone wall.
Outside the door, a corridor ran left and right, the opposite wall about six feet from the door. Brick stuck his head out, then quickly jerked it back. Spells and arrows blasted past the door in both directions.
“Well shit.” Brick scratched his helm with his hammer. “There be baddies in both directions, just waitin’ fer us to stick our beards out there.”
“Could you tell how many?” Sasha asked.
Brick shook his head. “Ye saw me, right? I did no’ take time to look, but…” He grinned at her and stuck his head out again, this time looking the other way. As he pulled it back once again, attacks passed by the door in both directions. “Based on tha… I’d say a LOT.”
Sasha thought for a moment. “Okay, we have enough tanks for two rows. They step out and push apart so that the rest of us can take cover between them. Then we move to the…” She looked at Alexander.
He shrugged. “Left.”
“We move to the left and take out that group. When they’re dead, we reverse and finish off the others.”
Brick and Grumpy looked at each other and laughed. They were both huge J.R.R Tolkien fans, and exactly in unison they quoted a famous line from Gimli in a favorite movie.
“Certainty of death. Small chance o’ success. What’re we waitin’ for!”
They both had a good chuckle when the remaining orcs roared their agreement.
Sasha was not amused. Alexander tried to help. “How ‘bout I just build a wall on one side? Then we don’t have to worry about the crossfire.”
Sasha felt like smacking her own forehead. “Or, yeah. We could do that.”
Brick stepped back and Alexander hugged the wall to one side of the doorway. The angle of his view through the door allowed him to see part of the corridor without being seen - or shot - by the enemy. He used Earth Mover to raise stone from the floor and block the corridor in that direction. There were loud shouts of surprise and anger from both sides.
The moment he stepped back, Brick, Lugs, and Grumpy leapt out into the hallway in that order. They put their backs to the wall and the three of them locked shields. Immediately, spells began to impact their shields. The onslaught was fierce, but the ogre and two dwarves had the strength to hold.
As they stepped forward, three more tanks rushed out and got behind them, adding their strength to the front row. With each step the tanks took forward, more and more of the raiders stepped into the hallway, three and four at a time. Alexander brought up the rear in case he needed to make repairs to the wall. Even over the noise of the battle, he could hear impacts on the stone.
The raiders advanced, the tanks taunting and holding the attention of the enemy as the ranged DPS groups fired all they had. There were a few melee NPCs at the front of the enemy force, trying their best to stay alive as deadly missiles both mundane and magical passed over their heads in both directions.
“Focus on the healers!” Sasha heard herself shout.
“What healers?” Max smirked at her as he fired another arrow. “I haven’t seen one of them get healed yet.”
Sasha scanned the enemy health bars. Max was right. Not one of them was recovering health after taking wounds.
“They don’t have healers!” She rolled her eyes when Max snorted. “Forget the melee. Focus on the drow casters!”
Alexander decided to test one of his newly-improved spells. He cast Magic Shield on the front line of tanks. A shimmering wall appeared in front of the tanks, just inches from their shields. Immediately, the wall began to pulse as spells impacted it. A bar appeared on his UI showing the remaining strength of the shield.
Magic Shield
Level 5
Capacity: 214,500/230,000
In just a few seconds, the combined attacks fr
om the drow down the corridor had dropped the shield’s ‘health’ by more than fifteen thousand HP, or about six percent. But with five times his health as a starting point, the shield might last as much as a full minute. In combat time, that was huge. A full minute to heal, drink potions, or prepare spells while your enemy wasted their mana or ammo was an eternity.
Looking back at the front line, he saw a shit-weasel strike the shield and stop dead before dropping to the floor. It tried to crawl forward, but couldn’t penetrate the magic barrier that apparently extended all the way to the floor. A moment later, Lugs stepped forward and crushed it beneath his iron boot. Alexander noted that the shield moved forward with him.
On a whim, he shouted, “Brick! Lugs! Grumpy! The shield in front of you moves when you do. Try running right at the enemy. See if it pushes them back!”
With a wicked grin on his face, Lugs roared and stepped forward, moving into a fast walk, then a jog. Grumpy and Brick kept pace. The second line followed behind.
The shield proceeded in front of them as they sped down the corridor, magic attacks and crossbow bolts exploding in front of them. The shield’s strength was dropping fast, but they still had close to fifty percent.
The few melee fighters among the enemy stepped forward and drew their weapons as the tanks approached. Lugs and the others didn’t hesitate. They bowled into the front of the enemy force, the shield knocking them back with a flash of light. Lugs and the dwarves pushed, the second line adding their strength from behind. The enemy were shoved back, falling into a tangled mess. The three tanks began lashing out with weapons, which passed through the shield easily, while the blows from the enemy just bounced off the magic shield.
“Bwahaha! This be fun!” Brick smashed in the head of a dark orc, then leapt atop its fallen body to smash his hammer into the face of a drow. Lugs had switched to a spear and was impaling mob after mob from behind the shield. In seconds, the back row of drow broke and retreated down the corridor. The raiders stepped over the fallen and continued to massacre everything within reach. Spells and arrows flew over their heads to take down the fleeing drow.
Not quite a full minute after he cast it, the shield failed.
The raiders finished off the last of the defenders that were still in range. The rest had fled down the corridor and around a corner. Brick led the way as they followed at a jog, the entire raid behind them.
Once again, still grinning like a madman, Brick poked his head around the corner. This time, no spells or other attacks tried to harsh his melon. There was no sign of any foe. A short corridor led to an arched doorway with dual ironwood doors.
Lugs volunteered this time. Taking a deep breath, he stood ten feet from the doors. “This is gonna leave a mark,” he said, before activating Shield Rush. His massive ogre frame sped toward the doors, impacting right at the seam in the center. The doors burst open and Lugs tumbled face-first into the room beyond.
“Damned things weren’t even locked!” he complained from the floor. A moment later, a dozen hobgoblins swarmed over him, stabbing and slashing with short swords.
Brick and the other tanks rushed in, slamming into the mobs and knocking them back from a badly injured Lugs. The healers focused on him as the tanks herded the hobgoblins toward the back of the room. An open door stood behind them and a few turned to run.
Alexander cast his shield again. Only this time, he focused on the doorway. Not sure if he could cast the spell on an inanimate target, he closed his eyes and concentrated. A moment later, he felt the shield spring into place. Opening his eyes, he was just in time to see a fleeing hobgoblin bounce face-first off the shield. The tanks and melee raiders moved in and made short work of the mobs, pressing them against the shield and mauling them.
Alexander dropped the shield and the group proceeded into the next room. They found the remainder of the drow who had attacked them in the corridor. No surrender in them, the wizard’s acolytes attacked with everything they had. Lyra, still standing in the previous room, took a random stray shit-weasel hit. It struck her face and began to burrow into her even as she fell. Fitz was there almost instantly but the nasty thing was too fast. It disappeared into an eye socket as she screamed. A moment later, she was dead as it ate through her brain.
With an apologetic look to Sasha, Fitz drew a dagger with a sparkling blade and rammed it into Lyra’s skull. The worm inside screamed and died, smoke rising up from the wound.
Off to the side, Fibble looked horrified. He stared at the wizard, eyes wide and lower lip trembling as tears rolled down his face. “Fitz?” The goblin protector hadn’t seen the worm kill the healer, just Fitz slamming a dagger into her head.
Sasha stopped healing to crouch in front of the little goblin. “Its okay, Fibble. Lyra was already gone, sweetie. Fitz just killed the nasty worm that killed her.”
The goblin’s terrified eyes looked up at her. “Fitz not hurt nice lady?”
“Not even a little bit. Fitz is one of us. Family.”
Fibble nodded his head, then cast a still-suspicious look at the wizard. Fitz gave the little guy his most friendly smile. “I would not hurt one of our own, Minister Fibble. I promise.”
Fibble looked more convinced, and when Sasha reminded him that the tanks needed healing, he turned and rushed into the room where the battle was happening, already shooting Lugs with his stick as he went through the door. “Pew!”
When the fight was through, Sasha called Alexander over. “Okay dorkboy, here’s your chance to test that new res spell.” She pointed at Lyra.
He held up a hand, then hesitated. “If I res her with that thing in her head…?”
Sasha shrugged. “Only one way to find out!”
He pointed at Lyra and cast the Reclaim Soul. A golden glow enveloped her body for three seconds, then she opened her eyes. Both of them. The eye lost to the worm had been restored. She lifted a hand to her face and groaned.
“That was… a little too real. No, a lot too real. I… I felt it eat into me. I don’t ever want to go through that again.” She accepted her brother’s hand to help her get to her feet. Sasha handed her some food and drink to restore her stats.
Lainey commiserated. “Yeah those nasty worm things are no joke.”
Beatrix looted as Max and Jules explored both rooms, finding nothing interesting. The raiders made their way back to the wall Alexander had erected and made themselves ready.
“On the count of three,” Alexander called out. “One… two…”
Max interrupted him.
“Wait, is it one, two, shoot? Or one, two, three, shoot!”
Alexander rolled his eyes. Max pulled this particular prank about once a month. “You know damn well it’s one, two, shoot.”
Max adopted an innocent face. “Sure, I mean, I know. But all these new folks might not have known.”
Molgo put a giant hand on the ranger’s shoulder. “Everyone knows its it’s one, two, shoot.”
Alexander chuckled and began again. “Get ready. One… two… three!”
The wall liquefied, much to the surprise of the defenders behind it. The moment the air was clear, the ranged DPS bombarded the drow and their servants. Then the tanks raised their shields and stepped forward. There were fewer enemies on this side of the corridor and the fight took less than two minutes. The raid’s only casualty was a minotaur who took a crossbow bolt to the throat. Sasha was able to save him before the bleed effect emptied his health bar.
Brick led them down the corridor in that direction, finding another T-intersection at the end. The new passage was much shorter to the right, leading to another set of double doors. These were engraved stone. The artwork on the doors showed a drow on a high throne overlooking a sea of kneeling supplicants.
Brick said, “Call it a hunch, but I be thinkin’ this’ll be where we find the boss.”
Misty snorted. “Thank you, Captain Obvious.” Brick gave her a graceful bow.
Lugs stood in front of the doors and once again raised his
shield. “I got this.”
But instead of activating Shield Rush, he simply took a couple steps forward and used his weapon hand to push on the right-side door. It swung open without a sound. He turned and grinned at the group, earning him chuckles from many of the raiders behind him.
Lugs swept his arm across his body, motioning politely for Brick to go first. The dwarf obligingly stepped through, shield and weapon at the ready. The others followed behind in their now-familiar formation.
The room beyond the door was impressive. Maybe fifty yards long and wide, its ceiling rose up three stories into the darkness. Wide stone columns lined a cultured marble walkway that led the length of the room to a dais where the drow wizard sat on the same throne pictured in the engraving outside.
Scanning left and right, Alexander saw no other occupants in the room. But with the size and number of columns, a veritable army could be hiding behind them unseen.
The old wizard spoke. “Ah! Do come in. I must say it was kind of you to deliver yourselves to me here in my home. I’ve been waiting for this day for quite some time.”
Fitz growled from the middle of the crowd, stepping to the side into plain view. “Your time is ended, drow. I have come down to your little hole in the ground to make certain of it.”
The wizard’s eyes widened briefly, then narrowed in pure hatred. “You are mistaken, dragon! Our time is just beginning. We will reclaim the surface world and destroy you and your pathetic allies. We-”
He was interrupted as twin daggers slammed into his back. Jules appeared briefly, standing behind his throne. She gave a smile and a wave, then disappeared. Fitz roared with laughter, pointing his staff at the drow and firing a beam of blue light into his chest. “The girl’s right! Too much talking, not enough killing!”
World At War Page 34
