Escape From Litchfield

by Isra Bhuthimethee

  Sol and Arnaud were still relatively fresh, despite having used all of their fireball ring charges.

  Both mages began casting their spells, but eight fireballs formed in a circle in front of the lich before launching at Sol, even as he closed to melee range. The fireballs smashed into Sol's Shield Sphere, doing an impressive 140 damage each. Sol's shield held steadily under the barrage, easily tanking more damage that his bare hitpoints would be able to handle. Fortunately, the other members of the group were out of range of the area effect.

  Sol raised his shield to deflect Gangren's stave slash, knocking him back several feet and his shield flew out of his hand. The lich didn't pursue him, instead, he finished an ice storm centered on himself. Everyone was hit with 200 frost damage, Sol and Tamara were hit by the secondary effects and froze to the ground, while Arnaud and Myst visibly slowed.

  The lich strode forward and his staff struck Sol's chest, knocking him into Tamara, and both were freed from the freeze spell. Sol's Sphere Shield was at a quarter full. Tamara recovered first, and stood over Sol, recalling her orbs to her. Several of Arnaud's Fire Darts slammed into the lich's spell shield, but the lich ignored the spells and started his own spell. This spell was gathering a massive amount of mana, far more than Tamara had ever seen.

  Sol recovered enough to add another layer to his manashield. He reached out and his ice shield reappeared, ready for service.

  The half-elf concentrated her natural gravity magic to spin four of her orbs like a shield in front of her, a deep purple gravity sphere formed as she held it in front of her. The lich's spell had formed into a massive ice spear, at least 15 times bigger than a normal ice dart, and sent it flying at Tamara. The spear smashed into the gravity shield and it shrunk and shredded, flung out of the sides as ice projectiles. However, Tamara was pushed back and smashed into the wall, her orbs sent flying in random directions. She slumped to the ground knocked out.

  Sol completed another manashield and launched more spells at the lich. Arnaud had stopped to gawk at Tamara's gravity shield, but he recovered to launch fire darts at the lich, doing some damage, but ultimately the lich shrugged the attacks off. Sol backed away as he launched more darts. Arnaud kept up his barrage of spells.

  Tamara sat up and tried to focus through the pain. All of her orbs came to her.

  [Bob89: I'm gathering all of the orbs. Your gravity shield is amazing with just normal orbs. Let's try it with your orbs outputting at full power.]

  Wobbling, Tamara stood up. She nodded in agreement to Bob89, even as she gathered her natural gravity magic to pull the orbs into a new shield.

  The lich clocked Tamara and laughed. "Puny mortal! You can only shield, but who are you shielding over there!"

  Tamara blushed, she was shielding Sol as he recovered from the lich's attention. Angered, she made a swinging motion at the lich, and surprisingly the orb's perfect formation left gaps that launched a beam of gravity magic lash out.

  [Tamara: Did you see that? Can you unleash a beam at the lich?]

  In response, her next strike launched a thick beam of gravity magic, striking the lich for a full three seconds. The lich was pushed back and several of his bones developed fractures.

  The lich roared and another massive area effect frost storm blew through the area. Tamara's gravity extended to protect her, but Sol and Arnaud were caught in the storm, while Myst was out of the range of the spell.

  Myst slowly stood up and reviewed the battlefield. Then he dissolved into a blob that flew to Tamara. He formed multiple layers of dragon scales around Tamara into a form fitting suit of armor. Each scale was adorned with a protection rune drawing magic from Tamara's orbs. Tamara strode forward to meet the lich, and her orbs reconfigured, and the gravity shield became a thick gravity sword.

  Bob89 understood her intent and moments later the Orbs began a high pitched whine as they went into overdrive mode. The gravity sword condensed into an incredibly dense and slim form.

  The lich, unafraid, slashed with his staff, meeting Tamara's sword. The world seemed to stop as a magic weapon met pure gravity. Sparks flew, and they seemed matched, however the stave distorted, then snapped, while the gravity sword slipped forward into the lich's mana shield. The sword visibly looked like a dense black sword, but in reality, the sword was massively concentrated gravity roiling at the speed of light in a clockwise direction. The sword acted more like a buzzsaw rather than a sword. The entire shield glowed brightly as the area near the sword distorted, converted into raw magic, some to power the sword and the rest flung out as beams of force. The sword sliced through the lich's arm, however, the lich side kicked the bard, smashing her into another wall. Myst absorbed the shock, and the bard recovered her footing as she fell to the ground.

  Sol and Arnaud's fire darts continued to smash into the lich, finally working into his hit points now that his shield was down.

  Sol shouted, "The fireball rings are up!"

  15 fireballs smashed into the lich, turning him into a massive pyre. For good measure, Tamara's "sword" reconfigured into a sphere. She sent it flying at the litch at full force, shearing a hole through its chest.

  Tamara has defeated a level 55 being and has earned 108 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 173 experience was earned!

  ...

  Tamara has defeated a level 55 being and has earned 108 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 173 experience was earned!

  Sol has defeated a level 55 being and has earned 111 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 177 experience was earned!

  ...

  Sol has defeated a level 55 being and has earned 111 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 177 experience was earned!

  Tamara gained 2 levels in Beat Dance Battle and now it is 37

  Tamara gained 2 levels in Leadership and now it is 30

  Tamara gained 1 level in Dagger and now it is 3

  Everyone sat where they stood, exhausted. Myst melted off Tamara and regained cat form and slunk up to rest on Tamara's warm shoulders.

  Tamara shook her head, trying to shake off her weariness. "Come on guys, let's set up the beds at least. We'll be waking up refreshed rather than a lump of pain." Knowing she was right, everyone pulled a bed out of storage before crawling in. Sleep quickly conquered the party.

  ***

  The orc party numbered seven - all levels between 35 and 40. They were decently equipped, although nothing seemed like it was heavily enchanted. The telltale gem slots would indicate high level enchantment. That still left rune enchantments, but it was unlikely such enchantments will turn the tide of a battle. The group makeup appeared to be two tanks, three warriors, and two casters. They may actually have a healer!

  Normally, Azdel would move around such a group, but they had planned their spot well. They had passed the border between the human and orc countries unchallenged, but this deep into orc territories, running into small roving bands of patrolling orcs was going to be a problem. In this case, going around would take a couple of weeks at best. At worst, it could take months. At a three to seven odds with the larger group at a high level to boot, normally engaging such a group would be suicidal. However, these three had been training and honing their teamwork and battle skills. And at a glance, he could tell the orc group had low teamwork and a split leadership.

  Azdel switched to group chat.

  [Azdel: We can take this group, but it will be risky. What say you?]

  [Jare: Go]

  [Auth: Let's do it! These guys are between level 35 and 40, so they will have hp between 400 and 800, depending on their build. Between Azdel and I, we should be able to outright kill off the low level guys.]

  [Azdel: OK, Jare starts out with Rush, Cone, and Taunt. Auth and I will roast them. Stun, then roast again to take out the low levels. Try and catch them all in your group taunt after the second fireball wave.]

  [Jare: Got it!]

  As usual, Jare buffed himself first with Divine Shield. Auth and Azdel stacked several shield spells on top o
f his. The regular shield spells would be used first, which allowed his divine shield and its buffs to last longer.

  Jare popped a piece of chicken into his mouth. Chewing thoroughly, savoring the taste. Soon. He had to repress the urge to sharpen his sword. It calmed him down, but they were close to engaging enemies within hearing distance.

  [Jare: Don't forget to munch on Tamara's chicken. We're going to get a ton of experience.]

  Auth and Azdel didn't need any excuses to munch on delicious chicken. Once they were done snacking and buffing, Jare signaled he was going in.

  Jare stepped forward calmly, activating Stun Rush. He sped to the enemy group at breakneck speed, which nearly left them with no time to react. Unfortunately, the lead tank got his shield up in time, blocking Jare, but he slumped forward as the stun went into effect. The group was still piled together, so Jare activated his Cone Wave and knuckle stun in succession, catching all seven enemies in his AOE and a second stun.

  Meanwhile, Azdel and Auth launched their fireballs, smashing into the group formation. The inferno roared all around Jare but left him untouched thanks to their Precision Magic skill. The fire was literally consuming everything but him, but he still caught some of the secondary heat effects getting dumped into the environment. It didn't hurt him, but he was drenched in sweat from the blast heat.

  Jare unleashed his taunt. "Those tusks are soo handsome! Compliments to your Ham-er!" As he waded through the flames, past the front line orcs. The stuns were starting to wear off when he unleashed his skill, !@#$%'s explosion, debuffing the entire group. Random Awakened skills failed for his opponents, ranging from attributes, spell casting, to even the Magic Shield that all Awakened possessed.

  Another round of fireballs exploded around him. Several of the orcs dropped as their shielding and pain tolerance vanished. One unfortunate Wizard screamed in agony when his Magic Shield dropped, and the flames washed over his body, while many of his companions simply screamed and charged the party. One of the tanks appeared to have lost his Magic Shield as well, and he merely grunted when the fire washed over him. However, despite his intent to remain in the battle, his armor and sword had melted against his body, so he was having trouble moving.

  Jare ignored him in favor of attacking the unaffected tank. He heard the second wizard casting, and he heard enough to know the guy was casting an iceball spell. He smiled, knowing that he was immune to frost-based attacks while his shield was up. The fight had just started, and his shield was barely dented.

  The orc warrior shrugged off his stun, just as Jare closed the gap between them and shield bashed him, stunning him again. The orc mage finished launching his ice based attack at Jare, watching in fury as his Ice based attack had no effect on Jare. Another round of fireballs smashed into the orc tank, sending him flying several feet backward onto his back.

  Jare looked over the rest of the orcs, noting that the withering rain of fireballs had killed everyone but the two tanks, but both were effectively out of the battle. The unshielded tank tried to stand, but he finally gave in to the damage - one tank left. Turning his attention to the tank, he took a step forward, when a pair of iceballs slammed into the enemy, knocking him into a tree, clearly dead.

  Calmly, he walked over to the bodies and began looting. They could do this.

  Completed Quest:Profession quest I

  You have chosen the profession Defender. Defend or attack for something valuable to you! This has a Level F difficulty.

  Reward:100 experience.

  Failure: Failure for this quest is not possible.

  Jare accepted the new quest.

  Jare has earned 100 raw experience! After bonuses are applied, 115 was earned!

  Quest:Profession quest II

  You have chosen the profession Defender. Defend or attack for something valuable to you! This has a Level F difficulty.

  Reward:200 experience.

  Failure: Failure for this quest is not possible.

  Chapter 15

  Morning found the group individually waking up, each at their own pace. Sol, being the dependable elf mage, woke up first. He went ahead and looted the boss and his minions. Since the official safe zones have been taken out, they used the level boss room to camp. In general, bosses took anywhere from one day to a week to respawn. Luckily, Jenny couldn't speed up the boss' respawn timer, so the bosses took a full 24 hours to respawn before they needed to either move on or find a new unofficial safe zone. After the battle with the Gangrene, they immediately set up camp and went to bed. Not even bothering to loot the corpse. They were simply too exhausted from their narrow escape from death.

  Tamara was the last to wake that morning. Sol and Arnaud were quietly chatting about the fight the night before, but both turned to her as she stirred.

  "Good morning!" Said Sol and Arnaud.

  Sol added, "We've looted and auto distributed the spoils. Nothing good. Just cores, air, and credits."

  Arnaud said, "We've started warming up breakfast with beer basted bratwursts. Your cooking is so delicious. I've never had anything like it before! The meat is so juicy, tender, and flavorful. My mouth is watering just talking about it even though I just had some!" Licking his lips, he added, "When I leave your party, I'd love to buy a boatload of your food. We should exchange contact info so that we can send messenger birds to each other!"

  The half-elf replied, "Thanks! I've been cooking since I was old enough to pick up a pot! I'd be glad to sell some food to you." She stood up and wrapped her blanket around her, then walked over to the fire pit. They had several bratwursts slowly crisping over the fire. It smelled amazing! She didn't want to admit that she really did not want to exchange contact info with him. He was still kinda creepy, but she didn't have any actual reason to dislike him. He's been a good party member. He just acts a bit shady. And his story about how his party died was a bit off.

  [Bob89: Yes. Profit. Charge him an arm and a leg. Maybe an eye or two!]

  [Tamara: Are you being sarcastic? You don't like him either?]

  [Bob89: Like you, I have no reason to dislike him. I just don't trust him.]

  [Tamara: Yeah. I agree!]

  A little chime sounded, and the grayed out party members, Jare and Auth, shifted from a light gray to the normal status colors. Additionally, Azdel also appeared in their group list.

  Jumping up and down, Tamara shouted excitedly, "Jare! Auth!" But she quickly realized that she needed to use her group chat.

  [Tamara: Jare, Auth, you're here!]

  [Auth: Tamara! We're your rescue team!]

  [Jare: Tamara! We're almost there!]

  [Tamara: I'm happy you're here!]

  [Tamara: I think one of our party members can port you to us. Arnaud, are they close enough?]

  [Arnaud: Hi new guys. Nice to meet you!]

  [Sol: Greetings Azdel, Auth, and Jare]

  [Arnaud: If they are close enough for their names to light up, then they should be close enough. Is everyone coming?]

  [Tamara: Wait. Can Auth or Azdel port us out of here?]

  [Auth: I don't have that spell, but I wish I did!]

  [Azdel: Nope. Don't have the spell. It's rare. You have to go deep down the shadow school magic to get it. I may be able to learn it if Arnaud would teach me. Useful spell in certain situations. Like now.]

  [Jare: Bring all of us in. Worst thing that can happen is that we fight our way out. We're ready for it! Start with Auth, then Azdel, and I'll go last]

  One by one, Arnaud ported the members in.

  When Auth appeared, he turned around to find Tamara, then gave her a huge hug. "I missed you so much. We all did!" He gave her an extra long squeeze.

  Azdel ported and saw the tail end of the hug, so he got in the action too by hugging them both. But since he was a small gnome, he pretty much only hugged both of their arms to his chest.

  She smiled at the gnome, and said, "Wow, you're an affectionate guy!" She gave him a separate hug.

  She missed Jare's port in, but his
giant and hearty hug enveloped her and the gnome both. After he was done, the gnome said, "Why Jare, I didn't know you missed me so!"

  He replied, "In your dreams little man!"

  Looking around, Azdel noted the signs of battle. "Looks like you guys had a tough fight here." He nodded at the number of body shaped indentation on the walls where Tamara, Myst, and Sol were smashed by the lich.

  ***

  After the introduction went around, Jare and Auth told their stories from the battle of Hopetown to the present day, leaving out any mention of town secrets. Tamara retold her tale comprehensively, leaving out no details. When she spoke about her skill, Necrotic Nanobridge, being out of commission, she felt another wave of apprehension - she really needed to ask Bob89 about that.

  [Tamara: I've been feeling waves of apprehension off and on lately when I mention Necrotic Nanobridge. I feel like it has something to do with you.]

  [Bob89: I am sentient, but I do not have feelings. However, I have been using processing power to determine the nature of your injury.]

  [Tamara: So you're saying that you're worried about me using that skill?]

  [Bob89: I just said that I do not have feelings. So I am not worried. However, you should be careful about using the skill.]

  [Tamara: Why are you worried about it?]

  Despite Bob89's assurances that he had no feelings, she got a strong apprehension feeling wash over her.

  [Bob89: I have no feelings on the matter, but I can not guarantee that my code does not have any endless loops or bugs.]

  [Tamara: Loops like what my parents had on my Awakening day?]

  [Bob89: Yes. If I ever say "arrg" or something like a pirate, please stop your line of inquiry or action.]

  [Tamara: I'm getting a bit freaked out here. And you are definitely feeling apprehension right now!]

  [Bob89: I do not comprehend, but I will log all my outputs for analysis.]

  [Tamara: Please. You might be evolving. And I don't want you to loop endlessly!]