“Cavey, help!” I shouted. I was almost at critical.
The familiar sensation of a healing spell flowed through me, but Cavey’s skill must have been lower than Vayde’s, as the amount of HP restored was much less than I’d expected.
“We’ve got to get out of here!” Og shouted, breaking into a run. Half of the Ilizak followed him, swinging desperately at his back as he ran, his health barely above 25 percent.
“Run!” I shouted to Cavey as I raced after him.
I ducked the massive claw of the closest Ilizak and used my charge to get some distance between us. The Witch shot something after me again, but I ducked and rolled under it. I glanced over my shoulder to see Cavey racing after me.
We were gaining on the fort, and I could finally make out the archers standing on the walls. I waved my hands in their direction.
“Hey! Hey!” I shouted. “Help! Help us!”
One of the men noticed us, slapped his buddy on the helmet and pointed in our direction. The man shouted something to the rest of the archers, who immediately turned their bows in our direction. Regardless of Bleed’s recruitment tactics, I had to marvel at their unity as they drew back their bows and fired.
The rain of arrows was like something out of 300, literally blocking out the rays of the sun as they soared over us like a wave of darkness before slamming into the Ilizak that were hot on our heels.
I glanced back in time to watch them all go down together, then burst into a cloud of smoke.
But the Magnascar was on us again, shattering the ground beneath him as he raced after us. The Witch had her wand aimed at Cavey’s back.
“Look out, Cavey!” I shouted, but it was too late. The Witch cast and hit him with some kind of curse that shaved off half of his remaining health. We were all almost dead, and I was still getting hit by my stack of debuffs. If I didn’t get to the fort soon and get a heal, I was done for.
Og dodged a pack of Plague Wasps and ducked as another rain of arrows came down from the walls, taking out the whole group.
We were closing in on the fort. I could see the gate opening to let us in, but my health was well below critical. I only had seconds left. Even if I managed to not get hit by another monster, the debuffs would definitely kill me.
I heard something behind me and looked up as the Magnascar’s foot came crashing down at me. There was no time to think about what to do. Activating Warrior’s Charge, I leapt forward as hard as I could, just as the blow came down behind me.
The shockwave from the attack, combined with the extra burst of strength from my ability, sent me soaring into the air. The archers on the tower loosed another volley, and I was high enough that I actually soared over it.
I’m going to land on the walls! I thought as I started to come down.
My health was almost gone, with only a sliver remaining.
Bleed players scrambled out of my way as I dropped, and I closed my eyes as I came down.
Please live—please live.
I hit hard and bounced, but I was alive. I tumbled, twisted awkwardly, and came to a stop. Opening my eyes, I looked up at the awed expression of three Bleed players gazing down on me.
“Holy shit, heal him!” one of them roared. I glanced at my health and saw only 5 HP remaining. One more tick of the debuff and I was gone.
Someone cast, and a heal spell bubbled through me just as the debuff hit me. My health started to go up, but just barely. Whoever had cast it was clearly a lot lower level than me, but it was enough to keep me alive.
I scrambled to my feet and used another charge from my Health Kit, which got me at least above half. The debuffs were still steadily chipping away at my health, but they were finally blinking, meaning they would wear off in a few seconds.
“Dude, you almost died!”
“What were you guys thinking running through the field like that?”
“Why didn’t you just use the Bindstone?”
“My friends!” I shouted, ignoring their questions as I leapt to my feet. I leaned over the edge of the wall just in time to see Cavey and Og race around the corner towards the gate.
I spun around and leapt off the wall into the courtyard and sprinted towards the entrance just as Og was coming in. His health was practically nonexistent.
He had a couple Plague Wasps on him, but they were instantly swarmed down by a group of Bleed players and destroyed.
I raced up to him and we both used our Health Kits to get him back to full health. I looked up as Cavey rounded the corner, looking like he’d just been traumatized. He slid through the entrance and the gate slammed shut behind him. He collapsed to his knees and looked up at me in horror.
“Tell me we don’t have to do that again!”
61
Spotted
My Plague Venom debuffs finally wore off and I managed to get myself back up to full health. I felt like I’d just survived the coming of the apocalypse. After spending such a long time leveling easily up North with the Ice Golems, I hadn’t really been able to imagine what the Plague Lands would be like. I couldn’t imagine what level you’d have to be to solo level with those kinds of groups around—at least 100 most likely.
Many of the Bleed players had come down off the walls to examine us, as though we were a rare animal that had just been introduced to the zoo. I was completely on edge, as our plan thus far had been nothing but disaster. We’d barely even made it to the fort, and now we had to find our friends. If Baltos and Xavier were out there fighting the Magnascar, just getting to them seemed impossible.
“Are you guys nuts?” A low-level archer asked, stepping over to us. “You never cross the plains without a group of at least thirty.”
“Yeah, don’t you know anything?”
“Why didn’t you just recall to the Bindstone?”
“Or use the portal to the courtyard?”
I hadn’t been prepared for an inquisition and glanced nervously over at Og who was pretending to be looking at something important in his inventory to avoid being questioned.
“We uh… we’re coming from Stoneburg,” I replied. “Haven’t bound here yet.”
“So why didn’t you get a portal? Did you run all the way or something?”
“We had an… old one,” I said slowly. “Dropped us off on the hill outside town.”
“Ahh…”
Apparently, it was a satisfying enough answer for the time being, but they were looking at us suspiciously, and I couldn’t help but think at least one of them was going to recognize me.
In particular, there was a female crossbow archer looking at me strangely from the back of the group, and it occurred to me that this was the first girl character I’d actually run into in Carrethen.
She was taller than most of the men, extremely slender with long blonde hair which she’d done in a braid that hung over her left shoulder. I got the sense from the way she’d customized her face that she was going for the night elf look. Of course, there was no telling if there was actually a girl on the other end of that character. It could have been a 300-pound dude named Chuck from Queens, but the way she was examining me made me nervous.
“Holy shit!” she gasped. “Did you guys inspect him!?”
“No, why?” someone asked as he did.
I spun around and caught Og’s eye. He was at my side in an instant. Cavey was standing close on my right, and I knew we were screwed.
I’d never planned on getting this close to the Bleed crew. I’d hoped to just blend in with the group—not become the center of attention. And that’s what I was. They were all staring at me and I watched as looks of recognition came over their faces.
“Jack…” someone whispered.
“It’s Jack!” another voice echoed, causing a domino effect of whispers to flow through the crowd around us.
Damn it! I thought, looking for an escape route. But the fort was pretty basic, even more so than Mountain Retreat. It was basically four walls and a courtyard and that was it. If the players
around us decided to swarm us, there would be nothing we could do.
“Get back!” I shouted, brandishing my sword in front of me and activating Battle Cry. A wave of archers went down in front of me as the AoE hit them.
Wish I had my Executioner’s Axe right now, I thought grimly. A nice Flame Strike would go a long way in breaking up the crowd.
There was no time to use a Bindstone Shard. We were surrounded on three sides with our backs to the gate, and even if we could get out the way we’d just come in, we’d be swarmed down by the horde of monsters waiting for us on the other side.
“Kill him!” someone shouted.
“The Ripper will free us if we do!”
“He won’t free us, you idiot! He’ll only free the one who kills him!”
“Then it’s gonna be me!”
One of them rushed me with a short sword. I raised mine to block the attack, but before he could even reach me, another member of his guild slammed into him and knocked him out of the way.
“He’s mine!” he shouted as they slammed into the ground.
“No, he’s not!” someone else roared, charging me with a spear.
I blocked the attack and leapt back as at least five other players piled onto him, pinning him to the ground.
All Hell broke loose in the courtyard as players scrambled over each other to get to me, but each time someone got close, another member of the guild slammed into them, tackled them, or attacked them. Pretty soon, the whole place was a warzone as everyone fought each other for the right to kill me.
I deflected the blow of the player closest to me, then rolled out of the way and leapt into the fray. If I could blend in with the rest of them, maybe I could lose them—after all, we were all wearing the same guild tabard.
Og and Cavey were right on my heels as we pushed and shoved our way through the bodies. It was like a crazed mosh pit filled with people wearing medieval armor. For the time being, the attention was off of me, but we still had to find D—if he was in the fort at all.
“This way!” Cavey shouted. I turned to see him racing up a sloped ramp that led to the top of one of the walls. I shook my head and waved “no” at him. Up there I’d be singled out. The only thing protecting me was the chaos, and I was going to stay in it as long as I could.
“Here he is—” someone tried to shout, but the butt of my sword to his lips shut him up before he could finish.
I shouldered someone out of the way and pointed at him.
“There he is! Get him!”
Without hesitation, ten Bleed players threw themselves on my attacker as he screeched in protest.
“It’s not me, idiots! I’m Dark Doomer!”
Where is he, where is he!?
My eyes scanned the mayhem going on around me, searching for my friend. There had been so many archers on the wall—he had to be inside!
But I had no idea what he was wearing or what level he would be. There were so many studded leather armor sets around me it was like searching for a needle in a stack of needles.
Someone slammed into me and knocked me back beneath one of the ramps. Og was fighting his way towards me and Cavey was standing on one of the walls looking down. Another player hit me in the chest with an enormous mace. The damage was negligible, and I used Warrior’s Charge to get him off me. The stun went off and I booted him back into the fray.
This is insane! I thought, my mind spinning as I tried to come up with a plan. But then, I heard a voice beside me.
“Hey, Jack.”
62
A Bitter Reunion
I knew who it was before I even turned around.
“D!” I hissed as I turned to see him standing in the shadows to my right. “We found you! Come on, we gotta get out of here!”
I grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled on him to go, but to my surprise, D stood firm and didn’t budge.
“What are you doing!?” I whispered.
“Get out of here?” D asked to my surprise. “You run off for two months and then just show up here to tell me what to do?”
“I—I’m not telling you what to do, D.”
My worst fear had been realized. D was hurt, angry at me for bailing on him, and I could see it in his eyes. I suppose deep down I’d expected it, but that didn’t make it any easier when I saw the disappointment in the eyes of my best friend.
“What are you even doing here, Jack?” he asked. “Don’t you have somewhere else to be?”
“D, can we not do this now!?” I pleaded. “Let’s get out of here and you can yell at me later!”
“I’m not going to yell at you,” he replied, shaking his head. “But if you think I’m going anywhere, you’re nuts.”
“What are you talking about!?”
“Don’t you see what’s happened!?” he shouted, causing me to glance over my shoulder just in case anyone had heard. Thankfully, the courtyard was still pretty much mayhem and we’d yet to attract any attention. “Bleed owns everything! There’s nowhere you can go where they won’t find you!”
“That’s not true, D,” I replied.
“It is!” he snapped. “Why do you think I’m here!?”
“I know a place we can go,” I told him. “It’s where I went when I had to get away. No one will find us there!”
“Yeah? And then what!?” he asked, taking a step forward and getting right up in my face. “You level up and go take on The Ripper? Is that your plan!?”
The world was crashing down on me.
Every time I tried to get anywhere in Carrethen there was something holding me back, something standing in my way. Whether it was a guild of murderers, a group of Plague Wasps, or my own cowardice. Now my own best friend had turned on me.
“Fine,” I finally replied angrily. “Where are Baltos and Xavier then? They’ll come with me.”
“They’re up on one of the walls,” he replied bitterly.
“Not out fighting the Magnascar?”
“They were, but they came back in from their shift a half hour ago.”
Their shift?
So, Bleed members really were slaves. Just another reason for D to be so bitter at me.
“Well I’m going to get them then,” I told him spitefully. “And we’ll get out of here. Stay if you want.”
I turned my back on him and began pushing my way through the crowd. He shouted after me, but the roar of the Bleed mosh pit completely drowned him out as I struggled towards one of the ramps that led up to the top of the closest wall.
“Where is the son of a bitch!?” someone called out.
“There!” another shouted. I turned to see someone with a halberd aimed straight at me. Thinking fast, I pointed to an archer who’d fallen at my feet.
“Uh-uh, that’s him right there!”
Just to make the ruse stick, I raised my sword up like I was going to stab the hopeless man beneath me, but as the swarm diverted in his direction, I quickly fell back amidst the horde of bodies.
Half walking, half jumping, moving like a rugby player, I sifted through the crowd towards the ramp. Using a stack of fallen players as a step-stool, I managed to get on top and make my way to the top of the wall.
I was angry. I knew I didn’t have any right to be, but it didn’t matter. D was always there for me, no matter what, and I knew it was my fault that he was feeling the way he was, but that didn’t make it hurt any less.
“Baltos!” I shouted as I looked out across the fort. It was absolute mayhem everywhere.
Outside the walls, a Magnascar roared and swept its front legs at the mob of swirling players beneath it. Plague Wasps, Ilizak, and Waste Witches swarmed everywhere, as well as some kind of giant knight off in the distance, its flesh rotting like a zombie.
Inside, the fight was starting to slow down as the guild started to realize I was no longer among them. Our time was running out.
“Did you find anyone!?” I heard Cavey hiss behind me.
“I found D,” I replied simply. The fact that he wasn�
�t by my side spoke volumes, but Cavey knew better than to ask.
“The others?”
“Not yet,” I replied. Then, cupping my hands around my mouth, I shouted. “Baltos! Xavier!”
My voice was barely audible over the noise of the crowd. The Magnascar’s fist slammed into the ground and I felt the walls shake. There was no time to waste. Something had to be done before everything fell apart.
“Baltos!” I shouted again, racing along the top of the walls of the fort. “Xavier!”
Cavey raced behind as we passed a group of archers that had chosen not to participate in the mayhem. One of them recognized me as I passed.
“Hey, isn’t that him—?”
I gave him an elbow in the ribs and sent him toppling off the wall into the crowd.
“Jack!” a voice rang out. I looked across the courtyard where Baltos stood waving on the opposite wall.
“There!” I told Cavey as I picked up the pace. Beside Baltos, was Xavier and Kattenschind. My inner gamer had a mild freak-out when I saw Xavier’s new halberd, but there was no time for that. Baltos threw his arms around me as I reached them.
“Jack!” he shouted. “You’re back! Where have you been!?”
“There’s no time for that, we have to get out of here. Are you guys still bound in Stoneburg?”
“You know it,” Baltos grinned.
“We are,” Xavier said stoically as he shook Cavey’s hand.
Somehow, I’d known they would be. My friends were no pushovers. No matter what Bleed had done to them, their spirits wouldn’t break. Tying to the Bindstone at Fort Keth would have been the ultimate surrender, and I felt myself starting to grin like an idiot.
“Stoneburg is overrun with Bleed,” I explained. “But we’ve got guild tabards and Cavey has a spot close by we can escape to. If any of them decide to give us trouble, I’ll fend them off until you guys can get clear.”
It wasn’t the world’s greatest plan, and I knew that, but something had to be done, even if that meant sacrificing myself for my friends whom I’d abandoned.
“Damn, this is exciting!” Baltos exclaimed, shaking a fist in the air. I saw he had a brand new set of cestus that looked like they’d been carved from a hard stone. Flame dripped slowly from their hard edges. I raised my eyes and gave him an approving look.
Call of Carrethen: A LitRPG and GameLit novel (Wellspring Book 1) Page 26
