Keeper

by Tom Larcombe

  “Damn it, I hate doing this,” she said, then turned to Eddie and Dominic.

  “Keep up the missile pressure on them, would you?” she said.

  Her light armor and bow disappeared into her inventory and a moment later she was strapping on her heavier armor. Her shield came out and finally her battle ax.

  “Alright, Jern, move to the left, I'm coming up to join you,” she called out.

  The dwarf shifted to the side and Allie came up beside him, striking a zombie down with her ax as she did so.

  The zombies weren't much of a problem any more, but there were enough skeletons that they were encircling the tanks, the room being far too wide for the two of them to block the entire front.

  Eddie saw Karl pop up behind one of the encircling skeletons, wielding his old Kali sticks instead of his swords. His pair of attacks must've been a backstab because as he landed his blows the skeleton pretty much fell apart and it had been one of the ones on the edges that wasn't being damaged by Tiana's spell.

  Eddie pulled out his throwing sticks. The only decent targets he still had for his bow were skeletons and he knew that his arrows weren't going to do anything to them.

  Hmm, I wonder if I could convince Opron to do some blunt headed arrows, maybe those would do better on skeletons? he thought.

  By the time the thought was finished he had his throwing sticks out, two slung over the pommel of his sword and one in hand. He knew he wasn't going to do as much damage as Karl would, so he chose one of the skeletons in Tiana's spell as his target, then hurled the stick.

  As always the game adjusted his throw to account for his high agility, and the stick struck the skeleton soundly. It continued to advance for another second or two but just as he was about to throw his other stick, it collapsed into a pile of bone. Tiana's spell was still going, but she was starting to look a little pale at the continued exertion and mana cost of it.

  “Almost there,” Eddie called out to her, encouragingly. “They're almost ready to drop.”

  He hurled another throwing stick, this time at the skeleton closest to Tiana, and when this one struck, the skeleton dropped. Holding the last one at the ready he pulled out his melee staff. He knew he wasn't going to be nearly as good with that as he was with the thrown ones, but it looked like it would come down to melee very soon.

  The skeletons must've finally decided where the spell that was attacking them was coming from. Eight of them turned towards Tiana and started advancing on her. At least three of those hadn't been damaged by her spell, either.

  He hurled his last throwing stick at one of the injured skeletons closing in on the priestess and then blew out a long breath.

  So much for practicing the skill before trying it out in combat, he thought.

  He started running at the skeletons closing in on Tiana, aiming for an unwounded one before diving to the ground. The slick floor helped his attempt and he rolled right past the skeleton he'd been aiming for, grabbing its ankle to use as an anchor to spin around behind it.

  That skeleton toppled as Eddie's weight dragged its leg out from under it, but before it did he'd used it to change his direction the way he'd hoped. He came to a stop behind a second unwounded skeleton when he struck it from behind with his staff. The strike absorbed the last of his momentum, leaving him lying on his back, still.

  Eddie quickly hopped to his feet as the skeleton spun around.

  “Hey, you boneheads,” he cried out. “You don't want her, I'm the one attacking you.”

  He swung his staff again, missing this time, but backing up as the skeletons started advancing on him.

  He continued to back away, swinging his staff at any skeleton that got too close. Then he grinned as Karl appeared behind one of the two remaining unwounded skeletons. His sticks came down abruptly and the skeleton's rib cage shattered, clattering to the floor. A moment later the rest of that skeleton followed suit.

  Lucky dashed in, worrying a the leg bone of one of the ones wounded by Tiana's spell. Becky wasn't far behind Karl, swinging her glowing wooden staff, or club, or whatever she wanted to call it, at another one of the skeletons. She hit it soundly, but it didn't go down. When it turned to face her Eddie took a rapid step forward towards it, swinging his staff. It slammed into the skeleton's spine and his notification light started flashing. He didn't let it distract him, immediately backing up again as the skeleton spun around to face him again.

  Becky took advantage of the distraction and landed another shot on it, this time causing it to fall apart into its constituent bones. Meanwhile Karl had disappeared again, but Eddie's rapid attack had allowed the other skeletons into range and he found himself trying to block over and over again, to no avail. He checked his health quickly.

  Health: 103/129

  That's not too bad, he thought. I can hold these guys for a couple of minutes, keep them off of Tiana until she drops the ones still under her spell.

  As though his thoughts were a trigger, the skeletons still in Tiana's spell began to fall apart. Karl appeared behind another skeleton, dropping it with his back attack. Lucky managed to tear the leg bone off of the skeleton she was worrying at and Becky had backed up again and was casting a spell. A moment later Eddie felt his health shoot up a bit, then continue crawling back up. A quick glance showed that Becky had dropped a Nature's Binding on him, so he stepped back towards the skeletons, swinging his staff.

  When he dropped his opponent he looked around. With Tiana's spell finally having dropped all the skeletons it had been affecting there were only about eight skeletons remaining. Jern and Allie were rapidly working their way through the ones over near them, leaving the three over here for Becky, Eddie, and Karl. Eddie and Becky were ganging up on one, trading blows on it. Like the previous one it kept turning to attack the last person who'd damaged it, offering up its back to the other. The two other skeletons nearby were closing in though and Eddie thought he'd have to break off to face one. His health had dropped a little bit more, but not nearly enough for him to be worrying about it with only three of them left.

  Something seemed different and he glanced around again. Now there was only a single skeleton still approaching him and Karl was fading back into stealth.

  Good, Eddie thought, I can keep attacking this one, dodge the last one coming in, and Karl will probably drop it in a minute or so, I'll only need to worry about a couple of attacks from this one.

  Even that much wasn't necessary though. A couple of moments after that thought, the approaching skeleton was struck by Tiana's mace. Despite being slightly pale from her heavy use of mana on the Light of Life spell, she was still wading into the combat.

  Becky dropped the skeleton she and Eddie had been tag teaming with her next hit and Eddie turned back to the last one. It was after Tiana now, its back to Eddie, so he took advantage of it and struck it in the spine with his staff. It started to turn to face him but Tiana's mace came down on it and the whole thing shattered. Eddie turned back to find Jern and Allie on their way over after having dropped their own skeletons.

  ~ ~ ~

  They retreated partway up the steps to let people catch their breath and regain their nerve before they went after the boss. Karl hadn't spotted any other exits in here, so they were assuming the last two mobs at the far end of the room were going to be the boss and a minion or mini-boss to go with him.

  “So, give me five minutes and my mana will be back up,” Tiana said.

  “Anyone else need more regen time than that?” Allie asked.

  Nobody said anything to that, then Eddie cursed softly. He'd gained a point in staves, but he was just shy of level eight when he checked his experience.

  “Was that you needing more time, Eddie?” Allie said.

  “No, that was me checking and seeing that I'm less than a hundred experience from my next level. I could've used the boost, although I wouldn't have gotten another spell since it's an even level, so I suppose it's not that big a deal.”

  Allie shook her head.<
br />
  “Stay focused here, okay? I'm going to lay out a plan.”

  She looked around, catching each person's eye before continuing.

  “Okay then. This looks like a pretty standard caster and tank fight. I'd guess the dude on the throne is a necromancer, why else all the undead? The one in front, wearing armor, is probably his tank. So the tank's going to try to engage us all while the caster hits us with spells. We need to break that cycle somehow.

  Jern, you'll try taunting the tank. If he responds, I'll move in on the caster and try to interrupt anything he starts to cast. If it doesn't, you and I will both tank, dropping back and letting the others do it for a while if one of us gets heavily wounded. Tiana heals of course, but with a necro we have to beware of curses. Can you remove them?”

  Tiana nodded.

  “Individually, yes, but if he has group curses that's going to take a little bit. I do have a caster only spell to protect me from getting cursed though, so he can't do much to me that way.”

  “Alright then. I'd have you try Light of Life, but I really don't think it would do enough on these two for us to forego your healing. Eddie, you're good with those throwing sticks so back me up. If you see him casting and I can't get to him to interrupt it, then you'll need to try to do it yourself, okay? Arrows won't be much use here since they're both skeletal.”

  She turned towards Becky.

  “Can you do a couple more of those imbue spells? We can have Karl stealth and strike the tank from behind if we can get that one turned to one side or the other. Don't want him to try it if the tank doesn't turn since that would leave Karl open to the caster.”

  “Um, yeah, but... You did notice that both Eddie's and my weapons I enchanted with that are glowing now, is Karl going to be able to stealth with a glowing weapon?” Becky asked.

  Allie turned to Karl, who shrugged.

  “Easy enough to find out,” Eddie said. “Hey Karl, catch.”

  He tossed one of his throwing sticks to Karl who promptly tried to stealth and left behind a fuzzy, glowing light where the throwing stick was.

  “Okay, or not,” Allie said. “You can still stealth attack him, we just won't enchant your Kali sticks first.”

  Eddie tuned her out for a while and pulled out his melee staff, he caught Becky's eye and gestured towards it. She reached out and he handed it to her getting it back a moment later, the staff now glowing. After sliding it into his inventory he turned back to Allie.

  “So that's it,” she said. “Me and Jern on the tank. Eddie for targets of opportunity on the caster, Tiana healing and removing curses, Karl trying to work in his backstabs, Becky guarding Dominic, and Dominic slamming away at the caster with whatever he thinks will work. Any questions?”

  She didn't get any, so since everyone was back to full, or very close, they stood and advanced back down into the room.

  ~ ~ ~

  They were still a short bowshot away from the boss when the tank straightened. It was clad in platemail and carrying a massive shield along with a longsword. A word from the robed skeletal figure behind him caused the tank to start advancing. So far he didn't seem to be focusing on anyone in particular, just closing the distance.

  The robed figure raised his hand and began to chant.

  “Shit,” Allie cursed, “I didn't think he'd have this kind of range, I don't have any way to interrupt him. Eddie?”

  Eddie hurled one of his throwing sticks. It was extremely long range, but he was hoping his agility made up for it.

  The stick clattered off the boss without interrupting his spell. Eddie checked and he'd actually damaged it, but six points off the boss' health didn't seem to have done much.

  “Sorry, hit him, but he's still casting.”

  Tiana hastily chanted, getting her curse protection in place. A moment later the boss finished his own chant and swept his arm in a wide gesture that covered the entire area the party was in. A sickly greenish glow sparked into being on all the party Eddie could see, except for Tiana.

  “What the hell,” Karl said, “did you resist that Eddie? Everyone but you and Tiana just kind of sparkled green. The two of you flashed golden instead.”

  Eddie checked and didn't even see a message that he'd been attacked with a spell.

  “No, it doesn't even give me any message about it. What was it?”

  “Weakness, minus ten percent to strength. Crap, there he goes again,” Karl said.

  The boss was chanting again.

  “We've got to close with this guy, then try to get someone to the boss,” Allie yelled. “Eddie, once we engage this guy get yourself in there and try to disrupt him.”

  She and Jern started sprinting towards the tank, the taller elf rapidly outpacing the dwarf. She took a sweeping cut at the tank with her ax, but the tank was more agile than she'd thought and quickly hopped backwards.

  Now that they were engaged, Eddie went around the side of the tank, Allie placing herself between him and the tank. He spared a moment for a quick Evaluate on it as he raced past and posted his findings to the group chat.

  [group chat: Eddie – The tank's a Skeletal Knight, level 10, got about 300 health.]

  [group chat: Allie – Great, get on that caster and distract him.]

  [group chat: Eddie – So much for me not tanking, eh?]

  He heard Allie's snort from twenty feet away at his last message. Then he closed in on the skeleton sitting on the throne.

  The boss finished casting and apparently this time he was using a single target spell. Eddie felt something brush past him, then simply dissipate. He couldn't help it, he popped open the combat notification that had started flashing as soon as the spell went off.

  You have been targeted by a curse, resist failed.

  Second chance from Comfort, resist successful.

  He grinned.

  So you can quantify some parts of the Comfort buff, he thought.

  Then he pulled his melee staff out. The boss shied away from the glowing weapon slightly and Eddie took a swing. He'd wondered why the throwing stick he'd thrown had been kicked away and now he knew, something about the glow disturbed the boss. The light over the boss itself was faint enough that it didn't seem to bother him.

  He missed, but his swing was enough to cause the Skeletal boss to draw a dagger from inside of his robes.

  So, I can keep him from casting, but I'm guessing I need to not get hit by that dagger much. If he really is a boss, he'll probably do a stupid amount of damage with it, Eddie thought.

  From that moment it became less a melee fight and more of a game of tag with Eddie using his acrobatics, not to get an attack in, but simply to get away from the boss' attacks. Anytime the boss tried to back off to start casting, Eddie pulled his staff back out and took a wild swing to interrupt the cast.

  The boss hit him twice, doing more than forty points of damage each time, but Eddie had enough time to cast Nature's binding a few times so while he was wounded, he wasn't as bad as he would've been otherwise, but his stamina was low, it had just started flashing after he dodged the last attack.

  Stamina is low: 25/306

  He was starting to wonder just how long they expected him to keep the boss busy, and beginning to doubt that he'd manage it, when the clank of runners in armor grew louder. A moment later Allie and Jern were standing beside him, swinging their weapons at the boss.

  “About time,” Eddie panted, falling back.

  The next thing he knew he felt his body grow warm, the last of his wounds closing as Tiana healed him.

  “It's a good thing you kept him busy,” she said, “I could barely keep up with the damage the Skeletal Knight was putting out on those two. Becky had to hop in a couple of times to help. Evidently Jern, as an NPC, is affected by taunts as well. It caused a few problems. Plus the Skeletal Knight had a way to heal itself a few times.”

  Eddie was slowly catching his breath, but he had enough to reply to her.

  “It's fine, I was just almost out of stamina. If I
'd had to dodge a couple more attacks with acrobatics I would've been out of stamina and barely moving.”

  Eddie watched as Dominic sent a fiery arrow into the head of the boss. Then realized that he'd never Evaluated the boss. He wanted to see what it was exactly.

  Tiana started chanting beside him as Allie was obviously struck with a curse, one that withered her shield arm. As Tiana chanted, Eddie Evaluated.

  Skeletal Necromancer:

  Type: Monster

  (Boss)

  Level: 12

  Armor: 125

  Health 550 (+/-)

  Attack: ?

  You are currently unable to obtain more information about Skeletal Necromancer with Evaluate.

  “Yup, not like I had any doubts, but that's the boss. A Skeletal Necromancer, level twelve and a shitload of health,” he said.

  “They're barely hitting it. I thought you said you damaged it before,” Tiana said, after removing the curse from Allie.

  “I did, twice, oh... I bet I know, hang on a second.”

  Eddie took his two remaining throwing sticks, the third was too close to the melee for him to feel safe recovering it yet, and tossed them out to either side of the Necromancer, making sure the light from the sticks was striking the boss.

  Almost immediately Jern roared in victory as he slammed his hammer into the bones of the boss.

  “Tiana, toss one of your light spells right over him. It's the light that makes him vulnerable, I think,” Eddie said.

  She did it and a moment later Allie also gave an encouraged shout as her ax bit into the boss.

  Tiana went back to healing while Eddie got as close to the combat as he could without getting in the way, holding out his glowing staff. His thought was that if the boss lunged forward and drove Tiana and Jern back, he could stay close enough to keep the skeleton in the light of the staff, and keep him vulnerable to their weapons.

  The combat was going much more quickly now. The boss had several stages. At seventy-five percent health he dropped a massive darkness spell that covered the entire lower floor. Unfortunately for him, Tiana's light and the light from Eddie's throwing sticks didn't seem to be affected by it and the only problem was Dominic's targeting. The fire wizard stopped casting for a few moments until he moved up into the light of Eddie's staff.