by Galen Wolf
Uchtred comes to the chapel door. ‘Sir Gorrow, we’ve found the crystal mine.’
Bernard and I follow him out of the chapel. The change in the village is astounding. Instead of the misshapen goblinoid hovels, there are human cottages of timber and thatch. They’re ruined and need much repair but they’re ready for King Arthur’s NPCs to move into.
Not that the enemy will let us just move in as simply as that.
The crystal mine is at the south side of the village. It’s a huge hole gouged out of the rock with a spiral track that winds down the outside of the hole to the workings below. Dark entrances with well-trodden paths show where the enemy went underground to dig out the Smoky Crystal.
‘Uchtred, get your men out of here. There are enemy reinforcements on the way from New World Order. Deploy among the houses and behind the walls. Make them fight for every inch.’
Uchtred salutes and shouts orders and soon the troops are reforming. We lost remarkably few of them in the last battle. I only hope our luck holds.
Bernard’s by my side.
‘Can you blow all those doors?’ I ask.
He laughs. ‘Of course.’
‘Then do it. When they re-take the village…’
‘We’re going to let them re-take it? We did so amazingly well with the vorpal weapons, why don’t we hold it for the King?’
I rub my eyes. ‘I wish we could, but we have less than two hundred men — even with vorpal weapons, we won’t defeat the enemy’s thousands upon thousands.’
‘We could try.’ He looks sullen now and I know that fixed look in his eyes too well.
‘Bernard,’ I say. ‘I want to fight as much as you do, but we have to be clever. We have to fight a guerrilla war — hit and run, you know?’
He knits his brows. ‘Like we’re never in the place they expect us to be?’
‘Exactly!’
Slowly he smiles. ‘I like the sound of that, the way you explain it. Makes me feel a bit ninja.’
‘Ninja is good.’
‘But you still want me to blow the mine entrances?’
‘I sure do.’
He walks down the long spiral path to the bottom of the mine hole to begin his work. I go looking for Tye and Fitheach and find them at the north end of the village staring up the road that leads eventually to New World Order.
‘Are they here yet?’
Fitheach nods. ‘Look.’
I follow his gaze and see the dark hordes of enemy infantry. There are undead riders among them but above them is a black shape with flapping wings. It’s far too big to be a pterosaur. ’What the heck is that?’
‘A dragon.’
I peer forward. He’s right; it is a dragon, but it’s a bigger one than I’ve ever seen anywhere else. Bigger even that the black dragon I fought with Mercurius or the one that raided the Secret Valley before we went to Lindisfarne.
‘It’s a red dragon,’ Fitheach says. ‘The biggest and meanest breed.’
‘Breathes fire,’ Tye explains helpfully.
‘I know that.’
‘Pretty janky,’ he says. I take it that means bad. I knew it was bad too though. Then the wizard smiles. ‘You know I’m a fire mage, right?’
‘I do.’
‘Well, I can give fire resist. Good fire resist. You’re gonna need it.’
‘I’m going to need it?’
‘Yee. Cause it’s you that’s gonna fight it.’
‘Hmm.’
‘I mean it’s a trope. The knight fights the dragon. It’s everywhere.’
‘What are you going to do?’
‘So. My fire is no good against the dragon so I’m going to blow up the undeads.’
‘And I’m going banish, wither and exorcise them,’ Fitheach says.
‘So that leaves you to fight the dragon, see?’ Tye smiles. He is taking this very well, but then I’ve realised for a long time now that he’s crazy.
‘Me versus the dragon. I see.’
‘So I’ll buff you?’
I nod. ‘And Spirit please?’
‘Okay go fetch your horse and we’ll begin.’
I go to find Spirit who I’d left tethered outside the chapel with a halberdier guard. I say to the soldier, ‘I’ll take Spirit now, you’d better go re-join your regiment.’
He salutes and slips off. I stroke Spirit. ‘Looks like we’ve got a dragon to fight.’
He tosses his head and neighs. Seems like I’m the only one thinking this could go wrong.
And what could go wrong? I could die. Not such a big deal. I’ll resurrect in Silver Drift. Spirit could die. That would be very upsetting. A good reason for me not to die. And if I died, maybe our army’s morale would collapse and if that happened, we might lose all our vorpal armed troops. It wouldn’t be the end of the world, but it would be a setback. The worst thing would be Spirit dying.
I lead spirit by the bridle back to Tye. Mouthing a few words and screwing up his eyes while sticking out his tongue in concentration he gives Spirit fire resistance. Then he waves his hands and buffs me.
That’s better than nothing. I check my Reinforced Crystal Armour and get some satisfaction that it’s 26,250. Let’s see what this dragon can do.
I glance up and see the dragon has advanced far in front of the undead troops behind it. It’s huge.
Fitheach says, ‘You know who that is?’
I shake my head.
‘He calls himself Smaugr. One of the first players. They say he was once friends with Merlin at the very start of the game, but now he’s best buds with Satanus.’
I spin round. ‘He’s a player?’
‘Yup.’
‘How come he can play as a dragon?’
Fitheach extends his hands. ‘In the first few months of the game, the devs allowed things they don’t now. Satanus isn’t human for example, I think he’s a pit-fiend, and even on our side, Merlin is crossed with some kind of incubus thing.’
I exhale. ‘I was hoping to battle an AI monster. Though the game’s AI is pretty good and improving all the time, it’s still not as good as a good player.’
Then there’s a thump and a thunder as the thing lands heavily on the flat ground a few hundred yards north of Carrionburg. I almost feel the despair sucking at our troops and I hear Uchtred shout, ‘Steady!’ But it’s like that’s going on in another world, I’m dazed as I take in the size of the dragon. It’s as wide as a heavy bomber and tall as a double-decker bus. It also speaks.
‘Come out here, Gorrow the dumb-ass.’
‘No need to be rude,’ Tye says. He’s scanning the undead troops who have stopped well short. Like our guys behind, they’re waiting to see the outcome of the battle between me and Smaugr. But then I realise that this isn’t about me and this Smaugr. We’re just symbols: If he beats me then the whole world is reminded that no one can stand up to Satanus. The King is forced south and even little Gorrow who flashed for a while as a light of resistance against the Evil One, when the dragon kills him he’s snuffed out showing no one beats the bad guys.
So I have to beat the dragon or our fight-back will finish right here and right now. I don’t want Spirit to die, but this is even more important than him. I lean and stroke my horse’s neck and he snickers. He still doesn’t look scared of this thing.
Smaugr speaks again, his voice low like a roll of thunder. ‘I see Gorrow isn’t brave enough to face me? Who can blame him? I am Smaugr after all.’
I am about to set off forward, when Fitheach puts his hand up onto my knee. ‘Hold a while. He may make a fool of himself yet.’
The dragon laughs and it’s like a thousand tons of lava crashing down. ‘I’ll just burn your little force and then we can begin mining our crystals again.’
I shake my head. This time Fitheach can’t stop me. I nudge my heels and Spirit steps forward. We trot out so we’re well ahead of our lines.
The dragon raises his huge scaly head and regards me with
his evil amber eyes. ‘So, you’re Gorrow?’
‘I am.’
He laughs again. I try hard not to let the noise unnerve me.
‘I hadn’t realised you’d be so small.’
I shrug.
‘And pathetic.’
I shrug again. He talks too much.
Then he breathes.
Smaugr opens his mouth and it’s like looking into a furnace. A blast of fire shoots out and hits us.
And that’s after the thousand fire resist. I’m about to go for my health potion when a beam of healing hits me from behind, and I’m up to full.
Smaugr lets out a roar of outrage. ‘Not fair!’ And he stands on his hind legs to make himself impossibly tall. His legs are thick as bridge pylons and he belches flame out towards Tye and Fitheach. He doesn’t kill them though. I see a wave of silver healing and the dragon is about to breathe fire at them again. They might not survive this a second time.
I click my tongue at Spirit. ‘Let’s go.’
I couch my lance and charge.
I hit the dragon at full gallop making him snap round his head and the flame blast misses everyone.
The dragon smacks round his fore-foot and punches me with a balled talon.
I sip my potion and change my lance for my sword and as Spirit rears up, hammering the dragon’s leg with his hooves, I slash right.
Smaugr attacks me again but I shield block his claw and then he breathes, hitting me with eight hundred fire damage. I go to sip potion but waste a dose because it’s on cool-down.
This time I get a Doublestrike: 1210 and 1210.
Fitheach heals me up to a thousand again just before Smaugr’s huge claws batter me for 300 and kick me off Spirit. The wind is thumped out of me as I lie heavily and I’m dazed for a second before struggling to my feet. Smaugr slashes at Spirit who’s battling him with his hooves. Fitheach heals Spirit but then the undead roar and a tide of them pours forward and hits our front lines. Tye and Fitheach have their own battle to fight now and I see the blast of a fireball as Tye takes down a wave of ghouls.
I sip potion and heal up but now the crystal bottle is empty. I throw it away. I should have got more from Bernard, but he’s not here.
Smaugr smashes Spirit to his knees. Blood’s streaming from the horse’s head. I yell at him. ‘Run, Spirit! Leave!’
The horse understands every word I say; he always had. He staggers up, hesitates, looks like he’s going in for the dragon again but I shout. ‘Please! Go!’ And he finally turns to flee.
Smaugr is going to attack him as he runs, but then the dragon sees me and I roar, ‘For my God and King!’ And I rush at the dragon with my sword and shield.
He hits me again and I resist the crit but that’s still 300 down. I’m at 600/1000 with no way of healing. If I got a minute I guess I could pray, but I don’t have a minute.
I jab the dragon again for 1210. I have no idea how much health Smaugr has but it has to be massive. Still, I’m chipping off twelve hundred each time. Then I see a black glow around him and know he’s healed.
My heart sinks. He can heal but I can’t. I have a thousand total health and he has much more than that. What did I say about symbols? I can’t bear to let my men see my fall out here so I redouble my attack. I’m spitting with fury as I jab at the dragon.
I get a crit for 3,6230 and that forces him to heal again so I snarl and run and hack.
Another 1,210. Then he smashes me down and I’m at 300/1000.
One fire breath and I’m dead. What did I say about symbols?
And all the time I’m hoping for my vorpal effect to trigger. It’s got a one in twenty chance of instakilling anything with a neck, and by god, he has a neck as big as a Saturn 5 fuelling pipe. No way my sword could cut through it in one blow, but vorpal is a game mechanism. If they have a neck it can be severed.
I’ve hit him more than twenty times, but of course that’s just the average, not a guarantee that the twentieth hit will be the killer.
Then my eye is caught by Fitheach standing on the wall behind me. He must know I’m in trouble. My heart fills up as he heals me up to a thousand and I stab the dragon again but there’s still no vorpal.
Smaugr breathes fire.
Flame engulfs me and drives me back and I’m on my knees, holding up my shield. I’m down to 200 health again. I just hope Tye’s fire resist lasts a long time, or else I’m charcoal.
‘Giving up yet?’ Smaugr roars. But he’s got black blood running down the red scales of his belly and that reminds me I can hurt him. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Fitheach fighting a vampire. Even if he wants to heal me right now, he can’t.
So I run at the dragon.
I hear it laugh. I hear it breathing in. I flinch from the anticipated blast of flame and the symbol of the resistance of the north dying on this field like a burned flower.
But I rush in and drive my sword with all my strength into the beast’s belly. This is my last chance. My only remaining chance. And I push.
The dragon falls to the ground like a collapsing factory. I step back and hear the moan of despair from the enemy. There’s a ripple of fire and explosions where Tye and Fitheach are destroying the undead. A flying alchemist’s flask that blows up with a green spray tells me Bernard’s in the battle too. I hear Uchtred order the advance and the enemy break and run.
I stand there hardly able to believe my victory — our victory — as I watch the enemy flee the field.
Our heavy cavalry pursue them and cut them down as they run.
As I stand there, Fitheach brings Spirit to me fully healed. Bernard’s with them.
‘Did I see the blue flash of vorpal there?’ Bernard asks.
I nod. ‘That’s what got him.’
‘Lucky.’
I shake my head. ‘Not lucky, just dice rolls. It was bound to happen if I hit him enough times. And that is why they desperately wanted to wipe us out so they could get the vorpal enhancement themselves. It’s a game changer.’
‘It’s overpowered,’ Bernard says.
‘Yep.’ I rub my face. I’m really tired. ‘I’m sure the developers will nerf it soon.’
‘They really will.’
‘Did I also see you level?’ Fitheach asks with a smile.
I laugh. ‘Yes. Level 17! Who would have believed it?’
He looks thoughtful. ‘So now you can come with me and train as a Paladin?’
Ah that. I look to the horizon. Bernard doesn’t say anything. I know he wants me to choose Baron.
Fitheach’s waiting for my answer. I put my hand on his shoulder. ‘You know I admire you, Fitheach. I listen to every word you say, and your advice is good.’
‘But?’
I smile. ‘I can’t give up Silver Drift. I’m going to choose Baron.’
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Also by Galen Wolf
Camelot Overthrown
Camelot Dungeon
Sir Gawain and The Green Knight
Camelot Defiant
The Greenwood Series
A Player in the Greenwood
The Runesmith
War in the Greenwood
The Bard
Plague in the Greenwood
Darkworlds
Darkworlds London
Darkworlds Paris (forthcoming)
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