“Oh, so you like lightning, do ya?” he growled at the little monsters. He Examined the closest as he started channeling his Storm spell.
Leprechaun Reaver
Level 25
Health: 41,700/45,000
The two groups continued to exchange fire as Allistor’s spell built. He’d never tried to cast this particular spell indoors, and when nothing happened in the first few seconds, he began to worry it wouldn’t work. But a moment later there was a breeze at his back, and then a strong wind. Air rushed in from both corridors to the spot where the leprechauns stood. A dark cloud formed over top of them, and the first bolt crashed down. The accompanying sound was almost deafening, but Allistor didn’t let it distract him.
Two of the leprechauns raised their hands and screamed a series of words, and a shield dome formed over top of the group. Allistor’s people continued to fire, the plasma rounds sizzling against the dome even as more and more lightning bolts rained down. The other leprechauns inside the bubble stopped attacking and added their magic to the dome.
Allistor kept channeling as Andrea cast her Dissolve spell on the dome. It didn’t seem to have any effect at all, so she went back to firing her plasma rifle. The mobs switching to defense allowed the healers to catch up, bringing all the humans back to one hundred percent before gulping down mana potions.
Allistor still pushed more mana into his spell. When he reached about fifty percent mana, the shield suddenly popped! The bolts began to strike the tiny creatures at the same time the incoming plasma rounds hit home. Only one of them had time to send another lightning strike downrange, taking down three of Allistor’s people again. This time Nancy was hit, stunning her even as her hair smoked and she fell to the ground. Chloe bravely knelt next to her mother and cast a heal on her.
A few seconds later, the leprechauns perished, first one, then two, then the rest. Allistor let the spell die as experience flashed across everyone’s interface, and Chloe wasn’t the only one to level up this time. Allistor saw the little girl lean down and whisper in her prone mother’s ear, and Nancy nodded. Getting up, she ran over and leapt into Allistor’s arms. When he lifted her up, she whispered, “I’m level ten!”
He knew the little girl could read, but not all that well. At age five now, Ramon was working with her. Allistor hugged her tight and said, “Congratulations, little one! You’re going to see some notifications on your interface. Just wave those aside for now, and let your mom help you with them when we’re done here.”
Chloe nodded and squirmed to be let down. Allistor dropped her gently on her feet and she bolted back to her mom.
They took a few minutes to loot the leprechauns. Sam was the first to touch one of them, and he started laughing. “The legends got one thing right, at least.”
Curious to see what he meant, Allistor looted the nearest corpse and received a full pound of gold in the form of sixteen single-ounce gold coins. That was the equivalent of about twenty thousand klax. If each of the humans was receiving a similar amount, these little monsters were carrying some serious cash.
The next surprise was that nearly everyone received a scroll of one type or another. Some were skill scrolls, some spell scrolls. None of them were epic or legendary, but all of them were useful. When he was done looting all eight corpses, Allistor had more than a hundred and fifty thousand klax and two scrolls. One for the lightning spell they’d used against his people, and one called Hide. It wasn’t quite an invisibility spell, more like cloaking. It created a barrier of illusion between the caster and a target area, almost like a mirror that reflected what was behind the caster rather than the target’s image back at them, and was only active when the target was stationary.
Bob, who had been brought along to level him up a bit, received a cool spell scroll called Reinforce. The spell would increase the density and strength of a material by fifty percent. “This’ll make the structures I build even sturdier. And I could cast them on gates or doorways to make them harder to break through.”
Amanda looked at the description. “If you don’t mind, next time I have a patient with a broken bone, I’d like you to try that on them.” The group got quiet as the implications of that struck home. Could they use the spell to make everyone’s bones stronger?
“Guys, I know it’s tempting to use them now, but please give all your scrolls to Ramon, so that he and his people can copy them. You’ll get them back as soon as possible. We want everyone to benefit from your good fortune, right?”
Everyone complied without complaint, and they prepared to move on. Meg handed out pieces of dragon jerky that gave buffs to Health and Stamina regen. Nobody had died in the last fight, but it had been very, very close. Then she had everyone take a few slugs of tea that increased Constitution +2 for two hours. They had all noticed that the second group was much higher level than the first. And if that trend continued, the fights were going to be more dangerous going forward.
Chapter 3
With the group healed, rested, buffed, and in a good mood after looting the leprechauns, they continued on. The rest of the second level was empty, except for a literal pot of gold sitting in a corner of an opened cell. About half the gold bars had apparently been converted into coins like the ones they’d looted earlier, and a cauldron big enough to cook an orcanin in sat there, filled with thousands of the things.
“These will come in handy for trade.” Michael observed. “Easier to use than gold bars, for sure. And we don’t have to exchange gold for klax at whatever rate the market is paying.”
Allistor agreed wholeheartedly. “I’ll start paying salaries with these, and using them to buy crafted goods from our people to help get them into circulation.”
“Be nice if we could find a way to make more of them. Maybe there’s a machine here?”
“There’s definitely one in Denver. It just never occurred to me to start making the coins. We’ll get some people on that asap. Also there’s a few rooms worth of the coins there, too. Gold and silver. We’ll get those out right away.”
Leaving behind the pot of coins, the group returned to the stairwell and headed down. The level three door stood slightly open, blocked from closing by a pile of human bones.
Amanda made a brief inspection. “I think they’re human, but there’s only a partial skeleton here. More than half of it is missing.”
“Likely something was feeding on it and dragged the rest away? Maybe the bees picked the bones clean.” Sam offered. The others nodded, the scenario made sense.
Logan opened the door the rest of the way, and Allistor gently pushed the bones into the hall and off to one side with his foot. They advanced into the hallway, which was another copy of the ones above. More barred cells filled with gold bullion stacked to the roof.
Halfway down the hall they heard a lively tune being whistled. A moment later a leprechaun walked around the corner in front of them. By his side stalked a wolvite that was twice his bulk. Its shoulders stood as high as the leprechaun’s head, and the beast had to weigh at least two hundred pounds.
Leprechaun Beastmaster
Level 27
Health: 51,000/51,000
Wolvite Companion
Level 25
Health: 64,000/64,000
Allistor didn’t give the leprechaun a chance to cast. He quickly used Erupt to send a spike up through the leprechaun’s chest, shooting a spray of blood onto the wall behind it. The creature tried to scream, but couldn’t get the air into its lungs. The stone spike was larger than the leprechaun himself, and devastated its chest. The spike missed its heart, still dropping its health by half.
The wolvite roared and charged toward Allistor, and a moment later an answering roar from Fuzzy drowned it out. The charging creature hesitated, but it was already too late. The three-hundred pound, year-old bear cub charged forward, half again as large as the wolvite, and five levels higher. The impact of the two beasts sent them careening into one of the walls, where teeth flashed and fur began to fly.
Unable to hit the wolvite without risking hitting Fuzzy, Allistor focused on the leprechaun. Despite the gaping hole in his chest, the creature was still attempting to cast. Plasma bolts began to impact it even as an illusion snapped into place and the leprechaun disappeared. Though the illusion threw off a few of the humans, the droids continued to fire at the same spot. The illusion only lasted moments before dropping. But the moment it did, lightning struck Allistor, knocking him off his feet and back into a wall. His head impacted first, and he thought he felt something give as he blacked out.
A moment later he was revived, feeling heals wash over him. There was pain in the back of his head and his neck, but he ignored it. The leprechaun was already down to about twenty percent health and the bar was draining rapidly. Fuzzy was still fighting the wolvite literally tooth and nail. Allistor managed to get a clear line of sight to the monster and cast Mind Spike, causing it to wail and shake its head. That was the only opening the enraged Fuzzy needed. He latched onto the wolvite’s throat and squeezed, simultaneously shaking his head.
The leprechaun expired first, using its last breath to cast a curse on the group. Allistor didn’t take time to look at the details as the Cursed icon appeared in the top corner of his interface. Instead he struggled to his feet with the help of Amanda and Chloe, and leaned on them while he watched Fuzzy finish off the wolvite. Nancy had been continually casting heals on the bear, and though he was covered in both his own and the wolvite’s blood, he was at over ninety percent health when his prey expired.
Amanda was probing the back of Allistor’s head with Internal Analysis as she felt it with her fingers. When she pulled them away, they were bloody. “You actually have a flat spot on your skull where you hit the wall. That should have killed you, even with the quick heals you got.” Her eyes glowed when she activated her Internal Analysis, and she added, “I can see the bone pushing back out and re-knitting. You should have a bruised brain and probably bleeding inside your skull right now. But I don’t see any evidence of either.”
Still disoriented, Allistor mumbled, “You seem disappointed.”
Amanda’s mouth opened, and she stared at him for a moment. “Damn. I’m sorry. That was a little clinical of me. I’m glad you’re okay, really I am. I just don’t understand it.”
“Maybe my skull was already thickened? I’ve taken more than one shot to the head this year.”
“No… I mean, it may have been thickened. Reinforced like your other broken bones. But it was definitely caved in. It’s like your brain… I don’t know.” She drifted off into her own thoughts.
Stepping forward on his own, he touched the leprechaun and wolvite with his foot to loot them, then put his back against the wall and slid to a sitting position. He’d received two hundred gold coins from the leprechaun, and a scroll. The wolvite had given him a couple pieces of hide and twenty pieces of meat.
His people knew to harvest what they could from the creature, so Allistor remained where he was while they did their jobs. Fuzzy helped himself to the discarded bits as the creature was gutted, skinned, and butchered.
The robots had formed front and rear guard formations and kept watch for more roving mobs as the humans did their thing. Prime came to stand in front of Allistor. “Are you well, Sire?”
“I’ll be fine, Prime. Bumped my head really hard. But I’m healing.”
The droid nodded once. Behind him, Allistor heard Amanda say, “That’s it!”
She walked over to him. “You were hit by lightning, that’s what threw you into the wall. I think maybe the shock contracted your muscles, and your brain so that it took less of a hit when your skull caved.”
“Good to know.” Allistor winked at her. “Glad you got that off your mind, and I hope it helps you get over your disappointment that I survived.”
She glared at him. “Well, you know… if you bite it down here, I do have a good case for taking your spot as Princess. Even though you haven’t technically made an honest woman out of me.”
Allistor was dumfounded. She’d never spoken about marriage before.
“Was that… a proposal?” he stammered at her, wishing his head was clearer. The pain and disorientation hadn’t completely faded. She just rolled her eyes and walked away.
“That’s what I like about you.” Meg said as she handed him some jerky. “So quick on your feet. Smooth, like peanut butter.” She gave him a playful poke in the belly and walked away.
Fuzzy appeared in her place, sniffing with great interest at the jerky in Allistor’s hand. He gladly fed it to his bear cub, scratching his blood-covered ears. “You did a great job, buddy! Took down that big nasty beast and made it look easy!” Fuzzy just snorted and gnawed on the tough meat. But Allistor could tell he was pleased by the compliment from the way his little nub of a tail twitched.
Wiping his hands on a rag from his inventory, he continued to talk to the bear. “We need to work on our coordination, my friend. You can’t just go charging in whenever you feel like it. I need you to wait until I give you the signal, okay?”
Fuzzy looked at him as if to say, “A bear’s gotta bear.” then resumed his gnawing on the jerky.
“Right. Good talk, buddy. Glad we worked that out. Finish up your snack there, we need to get moving.” Allistor pushed himself up onto his feet, using the wall at his back. When he was fully upright, he shook his head a bit to test it out. When he didn’t feel dizzy, he gave himself a little thumbs-up and stepped forward.
Logan and Lars stepped in front of him, and Lars said, “We’ll take the lead for a while. If you don’t mind casting that shield spell on me? You stay back here and recover from gettin’ your bell rung like that.”
Allistor didn’t argue, not confident in his abilities at the moment, and not wanting to risk lives because of his pride. He cast Barrier on Lars, and the two men took the lead.
They encountered three more leprechauns in a group, and another beastmaster, this one with a lanx for a companion, before the floor was cleared. His people took some damage, but they were learning to coordinate better, both amongst themselves and with the droids, and were getting more efficient at killing the magic users before they could inflict much damage. Lars worked out a rotation of stuns and interrupts, and the leprechauns only managed to do damage when one of the humans’ spells failed.
By the time they descended to the fourth level, Chloe and most of the others had picked up another level. Allistor wasn’t anywhere close, all of these mobs being lower level than him. But between the kills down there, and the experience coming from the droids upstairs, he was about 10% toward level thirty-one.
Just before they opened the door to the fourth level, Prime reported, “Sire, Nigel wishes me to inform you that some humans attempted to enter the Stronghold at the park. My battle droids were able to capture them, and are detaining them inside the fort.”
“Thank you, Prime. Please make sure the humans are not harmed before we return.”
Feeling better, Allistor took the lead again. Logan pulled the stairwell door open for him, and he stepped through with his rifle raised and finger on the trigger. As his light globe illuminated the hallway, a brighter flash etched itself across his eyes, and he felt the familiar sensation of being struck by lightning. This time when it pushed him back, there was no impact with the wall. He was thrown through the door into the arms of his people.
They unceremoniously dropped him and raised their weapons to fire, moving forward through the door one by one and spreading out to allow more firepower to be brought to bear. When the stairwell was clear, he got to his feet. Chloe turned to face him from behind her mom, and cast a heal on him. Blowing her a kiss, he charged back through the door and took in the scene.
The cells on either side of the corridor that would normally be filled with gold now held leprechauns. Half a dozen on each side, and all around level twenty-five, they were flinging spells at his people, who were desperately firing back. The humans were going all out, casting R
estraint and Mind Spike on the monsters to stop their casting, firing as quickly as they could with plasma rifles. Andrea cast Dissolve on the nearest leprechaun on the left, and it collapsed, screaming as its face melted.
But his people were going down as well. Ramon was on the ground, stunned from a lightning strike and with his health at ten percent. Allistor cast a heal on him before turning and casting Erupt at another leprechaun. The creature took a half step back just as the spell finished, so the spike shot up and penetrated its face rather than its chest. It stopped moving and hung limp.
The battle droids were absorbing the majority of the lightning bolts, having formed a line in front of the group. The shocks made them pause briefly, but didn’t seem to harm them. Allistor saw Prime hurl his pole weapon down the hall and through the head of another leprechaun. A moment later a massive volley of plasma bolts went out from the droids, cutting a line straight down the corridor. Each droid had fired both rifles simultaneously, making more than forty plasma projectiles impact all at once. A wall of illusion dropped, exposing four more of the creatures. These were larger and stronger looking than the ones the group had faced so far.
Leprechaun Enforcer
Level 30
Health: 73,000/73,000
The four seemed to be working together to create some kind of spell. Each of them was chanting and moving its hands, and a thin trace of magic connected the four as they stood in a half-circle facing the humans. The next volley from the droids focused on the center two enforcers, knocking both back and interrupting their cast. But they were quickly back in position and restarting the spell.
Allistor’s gut dropped. The magic of four level thirty mobs combined would almost certainly kill one or more of his people. He couldn’t let that happen.
Shadow Sun Rebellion Page 4
