by Cat Wilder
I wanted a helmet, but I couldn't find any that fit me. Garik bought an enchanted mail shirt as well and a helmet. He also got himself a spare sword, a round shield, and a bundle of five javelins, with an enchanted thrower to add X10 power.
I'd pulled all of my weapons out of inventory. My Bow and Dagger rings went onto my right and left hands respectively. The Gloves of Strength protected my hands, and hid the enchanted rings, while the Bracers around my forearms guaranteed I had a sword and shield when needed.
"My Heart of Thunder gives me the thunderbolts," I said to Garik. "Will the energy shield it also provides protect me from dragon's fire?"
"I don't know," he said. "I'd have to see it without this collar on to tell."
I grimaced. "I guess we'll find out the hard way when we meet Vikarous again."
I checked my HUD. Health stood at 97 percent. Stamina at 100. But Mana showed 2301, even after hitting Vikarous with a thunderbolt earlier. I couldn't help but smile seeing that.
"You're absolutely sure he won't hurt Izzy?" I asked.
I couldn't stop worrying about her. I loved the drow bitch.
"He won't do anything to harm her on purpose as long as she doesn't do anything stupid," Garik said. "Unfortunately, the curse has made him feral, and probably quite rough. But Izzy's tough and should hold up well."
"I'll kill him if he hurts Izzy," I growled.
Garik looked worried. I knew we had to take Vikarous alive to save Garik, but I didn't want to go easy on that damned dragon. All I could think about was killing him in the bloodiest ways imaginable. Yeah, killing Vikarous made me smile.
The way proved tougher than anticipated. Uphill all of the way. The pass had a steep incline. Garik said the road had to be built with switchbacks to get the grade low enough for horse and ox drawn wagons. So we ignored the road and went as the crow flies straight up into the pass, on a track used by travelers on foot.
The terrain remained heavily wooded, though slowly got steeper. After a few hours, we came to a fork in the trail. Garik turned up the left fork.
"The other trail goes up to connect with the road through the pass. Vikarous' domain is north of the pass."
"How far?"
"Three days walk."
"Then walk faster," I replied.
"That is faster. Most folks do it in five days."
I still pushed him to move faster. It wasn't long before that trek had me huffing and puffing, my thighs burning. We only stopped twice, both times at burnt-out farmsteads to get water out of their wells and check for survivors. We found bodies and signs of struggles where prisoners might've been taken, but no one else. Also all valuables, including food, were looted.
We passed more bloody corpses on the side of the trail after the first farmstead.
When we finally stopped for the night, I just curled up and went to sleep. I woke the next morning to the mouth-watering smell of roasting meat. Garik had a pair of hares roasting over a fire. He'd also purchased some nuts and small potatoes in town. He told me of a nearby stream, so I went over to fill my canteen and wash my face. He had finished preparing breakfast by the time I returned to camp.
"Mmm, roasted nuts are amazing," I said. "They go perfectly with roasted hare."
I enjoyed the potatoes after I got over the fact he roasted them in the coals so the skins were all burnt. I ate my fill. We divided the leftovers to munch on during the day. He even had more uncooked nuts and potatoes in his pack.
"You want me to store your leftover meat, potatoes, and nuts in my inventory?" I asked. "They'll stay hot that way."
He thanked me, and he got his own "hot food" slot in my inventory. Izzy would be so jealous when she found out. I never gave her a slot, though she never asked.
"You're a good provider, Garik. I accept your marriage proposal, but I warn you," I said, winking at him. "I am a high maintenance woman."
"Higher maintenance than Izzy?"
"No, no one's that high."
He laughed. "True. Anyway, that's great. I can add you to my harem."
It amused me he thought I'd be in his harem, rather than the other way around.
"You have a harem?"
"I will as soon as we convince Izzy to join you," he said. "Harems start at two."
"How do you not already have a harem? I thought harems were a major part of a dragon's social status."
"True, but I'm a poor soldier in the High King's service," he said. "Also, I can't afford a harem. Now, I plan to claim a big part of Vikarous' treasure as reward for freeing him from the curse, so I'll be able to start my harem. You and Izzy will be the top girls."
I just laughed. Izzy and I had other plans. Namely, getting her back home and ensuring she regained her high status as Heir Apparent. Knowing Izzy, we'd succeed, or die trying. I had a bad feeling there would be a lot of dying before the issue got settled. I just prayed Izzy survived to enjoy her throne.
"What about claiming some of the women in Vikarous' harem?"
"It doesn't work like that," he said. "Once freed of the curse, it'll be his duty to take them back home. I seriously doubt many, if any, will wish to remain with him. They were taken against their wills, after all."
We stepped out of the forest to find a burnt-out village surrounded by farmland divided up by short stone walls. The settlers in that area impressed me with their ability to utilize every inch of flat, arable land. Most of the lone farmsteads on the way up took relatively flat spaces, and then used stone walls to created larger, flatter terraces to live and grow food.
Cautiously, we entered the village and looked around. I didn't see any movement, any people or animals. I noticed some bloody clothes and bones scattered about, including mostly decomposed sheep and goats.
The stench of death and rot sickened my stomach.
The trail went straight through the village, which didn't have any walls. The homes were all square half-timbered houses, which I estimated to be about fifteen by fifteen feet, with wood shingled roofs. Well, what few bits of roof remained on any of them. Every single house had burned, some completely to the ground. I found the remnants cool to the touch, so the attack had happened far in the past.
A noise alerted us. We dropped into defensive stances, back to back as two groups charged out from hiding. Pigmen and dwarves, all filthy with the blood and grime of battle. My gut clenched as I looked into their rage-filled eyes. Every one of them carried weapons, ranging from simple clubs to swords and shields. Some of the dwarves wielded battle-axes.
"These are Vikarous' minions," Garik shouted. "See the collars. They are captives he enslaved to defend his lair."
I hadn't noticed the collars before, but then I saw them. Slim collars, only about the width of a man's thumb, encircled one and all's necks.
The collars' magic didn't appear to affect their fighting ability. They held their weapons confidently, and looked like they knew how to use them. It would be harder than fighting zombies.
"Is there a way to stop them, to free them from the collars, without killing them?"
"You can try your unlock spell, but it didn't work on my collar," Garik said.
I pointed at the closest pigman. The brute stood six foot tall, big-boned and powerful looking. I locked my eyes on his collar, and shouted, "Unlock!"
It did not unlock. He continued toward me. Oh well, worth a try, and it didn't cost me any mana. So I called up my bow; an arrow appeared in my right hand a second later.
"Okay, kill them," I said, and sent an arrow through the pigman's heart.
The dwarves and pigmen screamed their battle cries as they charged us. I killed four before they got too close. The bow vanished, replaced by a sword and shield. We fought back-to-back. Garik threw all of his javelins, but killed one minion with each throw.
"I see a shaman," Garik said. "Dwarf over to my left. I think he's about to cast a spell."
I glanced over and spotted a swarthy dwarf with long dark hair and a stag-head headdress. He also wore a wolf-skin cloak
. His gnarly wooden staff glowed with blue fire, as did his eyes. I just made out the collar around his neck.
More chanting drew my eyes to the opposite side. A pigman shaman stood there holding up a red glowing staff of stark white, with a giant ruby on the end. He wore a ratty looking loincloth, with chest, arms, legs, and bald head covered in blue tattoos.
I called up the Heart of Thunder shield just in time. As it burst out of my core, the shield smashed into the charging minions and knocked them all back a few feet with a thunderous explosion.
Ka-Boom!
The dwarf shaman threw a lightning bolt at us, and the pigman threw a long torrent of flames. The lightning boomed almost as loud as my shield, but didn't penetrate the white-glowing bubble-like shield. The flames splattered off it in all directions.
"That answers the flame question about my shield."
"Dragon fire is different."
Neither shaman gave up. I noticed they both drew their staffs back, preparing for another strike. I waited to the last second.
"Drop flat to the ground!"
I dropped my shield at the same time we fell onto our bellies, side-by-side. Lightning thundered above us, as flames roared. A second later I heard two startled cries, then an explosion.
I lifted my head and looked around. The dwarf shaman's lightning bolt hit his pigman counterpart, and apparently destroyed his magic staff. The staff's explosion killed the shaman. The dwarf turned baleful eyes on me.
"Ha! It worked," I said, jumping to my feet. "Kill the rest of them; I'll take care of the last shaman."
A third of the minions already lay dead at our feet. They split up and attacked with swords and shields. Garik killed more of them with the edge of his shield than with his blade, smashed into their not-thick-enough skulls and faces. Others he hacked down, stabbed, or gutted.
I turned my full attention to the chanting shaman. The dwarf held his glowing staff before him, face tilted up, eyes closed. I couldn't understand the guttural language he used, but it made my ears ache. With a snarl, I hit him with a thunderbolt.
Ka-Boom!
My bolt struck his staff, making it glow super bright. He staggered back, eyes huge. So I hit him again.
Ka-Boom!
Again, his staff intercepted the bolt, making it glow even brighter. His hands on it began to smoke. The dwarf's face twisted with agony as he fell to his knees.
"Third time's the charm," I muttered, and threw another thunderbolt.
Ka-Boom!
The shaman's staff exploded, and so did he.
When all was said and done, the minions all died gruesomely and we still stood. In the end, that is all that mattered in the game.
"I hurt all over," I muttered. I had cuts and bruises I didn't remember receiving. Got to love the fog of battle. "Drink a healing potion, dragon-boy, and then let's get the hell out of Dodge."
"Dodge? Is this village called Dodge? How do you know that? Is this game you talk about telling you that?"
Chapter 18
The number of magically enslaved minions increased as we got closer to the dragon's lair. At first we fought them with swords and shields. Exhaustion gave us a reason to reconsider our tactics. So we moved off the main track and slowed down. Unfortunately, the terrain created bottlenecks that every traveler had to pass through, all of which minions guarded.
I took out most of them with arrows from a distance, or with Thunderbolt if there were too many to deal with otherwise. So it could get loud sometimes, and I wasted a lot of mana, but what could I do?
"He's on the other side of that ridge," Garik whispered.
We lay side-by-side in dense underbrush. The main track passed over that rocky ridge through a narrow gap. Someone in the distant past had erected a wall and gate across the road, probably to collect a toll. At the moment, a dozen minions guarded that pass. The minotaur worried me the most, standing over seven feet tall with a five foot horn spread. The big brute wore head-to-toe steel armor, carried the largest two-handed sword I'd ever seen, and paced back and forth in front of the gate.
Minotaur warrior.
So he was just a mob, but really spoiling for a fight. The other minions atop the wall, all NPCs, wore expressions of grim determination.
We'd earlier spotted Vikarous flying around the area. He had vanished behind the ridge beyond that wall. There were other places to pass over that ridge, but none closer to the dragon. Garik swore it was best to challenge the dragon outside of his lair. We'd have a better chance of surviving the fight, though not necessarily winning it.
"Yeah, but the big bull looks eager for a fight," I said. "Getting past him is going to be a bitch."
Garik studied him a moment. "Is he what you call a boss?"
"No. Vikarous is the boss here," I said. "He's what I call a royal pain in the ass."
I looked past the minotaur warrior. While he was the only minion on the ground, I counted eleven more up on the wall. They were a mixed bag of pigmen, dwarves, goblins, and a pair of dark elves. On the downside, both of the dark elves appeared to be archers. Drow archers were almost as good as regular elves.
My enchanted bow and arrows pretty much gave me an endless supply of arrows, and my shots could penetrate anything but the thickest armor if I put some mana into them. But no amount of mana would give me greater range. So as soon as I started shooting, the two drow would shoot back at us.
"We need to find another way over that ridge," Garik said.
"Why? We've fought and defeated patrols with more warriors."
"Vikarous will hear your thunderbolts and join the fight before we're ready for him. We can't fight a dragon and his minions at the same time."
"Then I won't use thunderbolts," I replied. "Vikarous will be long gone by the time we find another way over that ridge."
He didn't have an argument for that, so I eased back and started working my way closer to the wall. The trees and underbrush crowded in on the narrow trail, only cleared back fifty feet from the gate. The wall stood about twenty feet high, one hundred feet long.
The two drow watched through the battlements above the open gate. I watched the pigmen, dwarves, and goblins scattered along the length of the wall, and not being nearly as attentive as the dark elves and minotaur. Since everyone seemed fixated on the actual trail, I moved up to the end of the wall, and dropped to one knee just inside the treeline. Garik stopped next to me.
"You are a very reckless warrior, Carly," Garik said. "I like it. I admire your bravery."
I scanned the soon-to-be battlefield. The gate stood open, so technically we could pretend to attack the minions before dodging around the big bull. Unless more minions hid behind the wall, they couldn’t shut the gate before we slipped through and past them.
"The previous minions seemed to be bound to their area," I whispered. "If that holds true here, I think our best tactic is to avoid fighting and race through the gate. They won't be able to chase us very far before being forced to return to their assigned post."
"How do you propose we get past the minotaur? He's staying right there in front of the gate, challenging one and all." He pointed above the minotaur. "And the drow archers will shoot us in the back after we pass through the gate and run for it."
I considered that a moment. "You let me worry about the archers."
"I'm probably going to regret this, but what's your plan?"
I wagged my brows at him. "You're going to charge out there by yourself and distract everyone."
"Well, that sounds suitably stupid," he said. "What are you doing to do while I commit suicide?"
"I'll use my Levitate spell to get atop the wall. Once there, I'll use sword and spell to kill them. My main target will be the archers."
Garik stared at the minotaur a long moment, his face unreadable. Finally, he gave a half-shrug and looked at me.
"I like it."
"Great, I feared you'd think my plan suicidal."
"It is suicidal," he said. "That's why I like it. Your
crazy plans are all glorious. I can only imagine all of the songs the bards will sing about us if we're successful and survive."
I really hadn't considered that aspect. Did I want to go down in legend and song? Why not? Mostly, I wanted to just drink, fuck, and challenge the occasional dungeon. You know, play the game.
"You might be crazier than Izzy."
I waved him into the attack. Garik didn't get two steps out of the forest before all eyes turned on him. He ran in a great loop toward the minotaur, drawing all of their attention from my location. Arrows began bouncing off his shield.
"That's bravery," I muttered. "Knowing he can die for real, he still charges out to fight."
Was that brave? Or just batshit crazy?
I didn't have time to think about such BS. Seeing my chance, I raced out of the woods and used Levitate to fly up and onto the wall. But I didn't go up to my end of the wall. Oh no, I went for the middle of the wall.
"Die!"
I flew over half the length of that wall, while raining enchanted arrows down upon them. Minions dropped like flies as I sent arrow after arrow into their thinning ranks. I fired two arrows at the drow archers, but they batted them out of the air with their bows. However, it kept them from shooting at me or Garik.
I landed on the other side of the dark elves, released my bow and called up my sword and shield. And just in time. Two arrows thudded into my shield. The clash of steel drew my eyes down in front of the gate. Garik and the minotaur fought like hellcats.
"Everyone else," I shouted, looking all around. "Attack the evil minions!"
The two drow and the remaining minions all looked toward the woods to either side. Idiots. I barked a laugh as I plowed into the drow archers, shield first. I battered them apart, before dropping low and hacking off one of their feet right above the ankle. He fell with a cry of anger and agony. The tip of my sword pierced his throat a second later.
The other drow dropped his bow and pulled his sword.
"I will eat your heart, elf!"
"You wish," I taunted. "But I'm a renner. I can't die!"
