The Dragon's Wrath: Ashes of the Fallen

by Brent Roth

  The big bad boss, wasn't really all that big at five feet tall and maybe a hundred and twenty pounds… but he was certainly bigger than the other goblins. Curiously, they all looked male and I had yet to see a female, well, I wasn't about to check for genitalia anyways… maybe they were asexual.

  That was easier to process, too.

  The thought of goblins reproducing down here in the dungeon was a bit disturbing.

  Oh well, my mind was wandering too far on a tangent.

  "So, which strategy should we try?" I asked after everyone had recovered and settled in. "AoE bombardment, then taunt and tank?"

  "No tellin' if we can actually pull it off 'till we give 'er a go," said Barik as he jumped up and pulled out his sword. With his shield at the ready, he was eager to start.

  "Let's just see what happens," chimed in Alan.

  "I'm ready when you guys are," stated the frost mage.

  "Oi, time's a wasting," chirped Ethan as he rolled a small flame around his fingertips. "We've already been here for over two hours."

  "Yeah, well then," I agreed with a shrug.

  I guess it was time, after all.

  Getting into position, Barik took up center next to me while Alan sat far behind us. The frost mage took position up on the left and Ethan took the right, filling out our loose formation. Whether or not that was for the best was to be decided shortly. Mainly, we wanted eyes on target from different vantage points, just in case shit hit the fan.

  Taking a deep breath, I exhaled slowly as I focused on my target.

  "Five," I called out as I brought my hands together and began to chant my three verses, intending to get one solid [Chain Lightning] off on the [Chief]. As my hands started to glow and electricity sparked and flickered about, to my right an intense flame had been gathered and was steadily increasing in size as the seconds counted down.

  To the left, the dwarf swallowed the lump in his throat as he tensed his shoulders, waiting for the right moment to charge forth. Past him, far off from the group, the frost mage's hands were aglow with a cool white-blue luminance as slushed ice flowed between them, creating a sublimating effect as white gas began to permeate outwards.

  "Chain Lightning!"

  "Flame Wave!"

  "Frost Bolt!"

  We all yelled, completely in sync.

  As the intertwined bolts of lightning surged out and cracked the air, a literal wave of flame rolled directly over the goblins, intermixing with the bolt of frost as if it were some pyroclastic flow with a raging thunderstorm spread throughout. The devastating scene unfolding before our very eyes was a sight to behold, but we couldn't admire our greatness. Without even a second to consider the effectiveness, I ran forward with the dwarf at my side as we raised our shields and barreled through the minor goblins at the forefront, bashing our shields and knocking the smaller goblins back, we went straight into the heart of the swarm.

  Barik shot forward, diving behind the chief and picking him up as the guards and minors clustered around me. The priests were already healing the guards as I shouted out a [Call to Challenge], enraging and taunting the goblins into a frenzy and forcing them to pile on top of me.

  Arms flailed randomly as seven swords were swung in my direction with two spears thrust towards my torso. The sound of two arrows as they whizzed past my head nearly broke my concentration but I couldn't afford a break. I was on the wrong end of an onslaught that I could barely hope to repel, but I threw out my shield and raised my axe in an attempt.

  Swords cut deep into my legs and arms as I focused on deflecting the spears as an arrow hit me in the neck. Suddenly struggling to breathe as blood started to flow, I curled up and began to shake as rain started to fall and freeze on contact with my skin. A single beam of pure flame shot out across the mass of goblins in front of me as they screamed in reaction. The smell of burnt flesh and singed hair flooded my nostrils while electricity had begun to envelop me, ready to burst at any moment.

  Only a second had passed and with a thrust of my arms outwards while expanding my chest, I discharged the built up electricity in a perfect circle around me, creating an explosion that rocked every goblin within five feet. Minor goblins flew through the air in every direction as the guards were knocked back a step, but they recovered far too quickly and with my haggard breathing I was quickly losing my stamina.

  The first heavy thrust came without hesitation as I blocked it with my shield but then the second heavy thrust came and with my weakened state, a partial deflection was all I could muster.

  Piercing straight through my biceps and out the triceps, my right arm was rendered completely useless as I started to choke on the blood that had been draining into my lungs. My stamina entirely depleted, I collapsed to the floor as another arrow found its mark in my chest. Swords pierced through me as I could barely make out a spear shaft curiously sticking out of my stomach.

  Eyes hazy, I stared at the shaft as I fell forward.

  Then everything went black.

  By the time the color had returned, there were only two true shades.

  Blue and gray… the world had turned dark again.

  I was dead.

  "Damn," I muttered to myself as the spirit form of Barik appeared next to me.

  Ethan, Alan, and the frost mage showed up a few seconds later, as we all looked at each other in our ghost versions. The first attempt was a complete failure.

  We wiped.

  Entering the dungeon after a short run from the graveyard, there were a lot of questions and not a lot of answers. The fight ended too quickly to be of real use, but I did realize one thing, at least.

  "What happened?" asked Alan immediately. "You just dropped, Sigurd."

  "Took an arrow to the throat, crippled me from the start."

  "Ah, shit," said Barik with a curious expression on his face.

  "Well even if that didn’t happen, those priests were healing all the damage we did," stated Ethan with a shrug. "We need to kill them somehow, only the minors died."

  Without the ability to see much of anything with all of the pyrotechnics going on, I was woefully short of information. All I knew, was that the archers were deadly. Too deadly to be left alone again, less I wanted an arrow to the knee or throat again.

  This fight was rough.

  "I couldn't really see anything, how many died?" I asked after gathering my thoughts. "And were any others close, or what?"

  Silence filled the room as we continued to walk back, with everyone thinking over the fight from their perspective. Barik and I couldn't watch all of the goblins, what with being stuck in melee and concentrating on swords and spears flying towards us.

  That left the mages, to be our eyes.

  "Most of the minor goblins were about dead," said Ethan after some time. "The guards were near full health at the end thanks to the priests though."

  "The priests and archers were basically at full health," echoed the frost mage.

  Ah, so our Area of Effect strategy wasn't good enough.

  Not with the priests still up, but that was expected.

  "How about you, Alan?" I questioned sincerely. "See anything?"

  "Nope, too busy healing you," he replied.

  By the time we made it back to the fifth floor and entered the boss's room, all fourteen goblins were standing pretty in the same position as before. They had been reset and spawned at full health and with full numbers.

  Yeah, we wouldn't get the easy way out.

  It would be too convenient for the minions not to respawn.

  "So, what do we do?" asked Barik as he checked the condition of his shield.

  "I don't think freezing rain will work here," I bluntly stated. "May have worked alright for some of the earlier fights, but we need to burn targets here not outlast them."

  "Can't kite the boss either, it'll just leash," Barik explained.

  "Yeah, we need some changes."

  Strategy was almost always left to me, but it was a group discussion and all inpu
t was valued. Unfortunately some of the guys weren't very vocal, which kind of hurt the process. Racking my brain trying to think of a way to fix our issues, the only thing that came to mind was having a mage solo the minor goblins or splitting into two groups.

  Friendly fire was a real issue.

  We needed the priests and archers taken care of before we could worry about the guards or the boss. From there, I wasn't sure what should be focused first. Generally, if the guards could fall quickly you took them out, but if the boss did the most damage, then it needed to go. From our five second sample size, there wasn't enough information to plan around. I was at a loss on what to do.

  This sucked.

  "Positioning, let's start there," I exclaimed with some confidence.

  "Yeah?" asked Ethan curiously.

  "Need to ensure the priests die first, then the archers," I started to explain. "I think I can manage the minor goblins with my discharge to buy time for you guys to rotate after, but I can't do much to defend against arrows I can't see."

  "Aye, this fucking ash and smoke has me fighting nearly blind," complained Barik, to everyone's surprise. "I can't see shit with my eyes watering, hard enough as it is."

  That was the truth.

  The environment was terrible, and the lousy conditions only increased the difficulty of the fight… we were already at a serious disadvantage before the fight even began. Toss in the huge number discrepancy and I was starting to wonder at what level were the developers expecting us to clear the damn place.

  Ridiculous scenario, is ridiculous.

  "Okay, how about this," I said with some enthusiasm as an idea hit me. "Ethan get up on the far right side, so you can easily and quickly flame spike in a straight line. Use flame wave first, of course, focusing on the secondary line. Follow up with a fire blast on the priest, if it happens to still be alive."

  Scratching my head, I needed to figure out what to do with our frost mage.

  Glancing at the frost mage, I got his attention then decided to explain his role, "do you think you can just fan far out to the left, get an angle on the other priest, and frost bolt nonstop on the priority targets? You're more efficient once you get rolling, right?"

  "Yep, I'll get my chaining bonus and it's more mana efficient for a long fight."

  As he nodded in agreement, his role was now solidified.

  That left Barik and me.

  "You're good with the chief," I said as I looked at Barik.

  "Right, I can handle him for a bit," he replied with a grin.

  "That just leaves me," I mumbled as I tried to think of the best place to tank all the little guys. "You know what, let's get all three of you casters to the right, I'll take the minions and the guards and pull them to the left, and Barik will take the chief where it is. Since the priests and archers won't move, you'll have line of sight, easy."

  "Splitting the mobs?" asked Barik, with a tilt of his head.

  "Yeah, I can kite with discharge and maybe even get a secondary spell off."

  "Right, sounds good," he replied with a nod.

  With everything settled, our strategy had changed slightly but not entirely. There weren't any boss mechanics that we were aware of yet, and it seemed likely that the primary difficulty was in the numbers. A technically difficult fight would probably come later in the game, for now it was a matter of overpowering creatures when outnumbered.

  My faith in the group hadn't been shaken.

  I was still confident we could pull it off.

  "Hey, let me have one of those extra shields," I said somewhat randomly before we settled into position. Slinging a [Cracked Aspis] on my back and tightening the straps around my chest, I made sure that it was snugly in place. Keeping my [Old Aspis] attached to my left arm, I was now rocking two shields. With my [Crude Iron Hand Axe] in my right hand, I was now ready to go. My back was defended whether or not I paid any attention to it, my left would be easy to guard, and my right would depend on my ability to deftly parry and deflect.

  All in all, it was something I could work with.

  My overall dexterity was impaired and my shoulders and elbows couldn't move quite as freely, but that didn't matter. I wouldn't need full flexibility this fight. Mainly, I needed to survive attacks from all directions.

  Especially, the not so wayward arrows… those spelt doom for me.

  "Alright, let's get this shit show started," I said with some oomph.

  Stretching my arms out and yawning once for good measure, I brought my hands together as I lowered into my stance. Knees bent, legs shoulder-width apart, elbows tucked in, and palms touching as a spark jolted them apart. The ash and smoke that clouded my vision was nothing more than a filtered screen as I began to focus. Eyes watering, the chief was my intended target.

  The damp and dank, dimly lit surroundings were somewhat cramped and barely gave us room to maneuver but we would make do. The flames danced as an intense bright white light started to radiate from my hands, drowning out the weak torches that littered the cave walls. The black and gray rock interior clearly visible as lightning had gathered between my fingertips and illuminated everything around me. What came next would be deafening, with the cave walls amplifying the thunder and echoing throughout.

  Ears would ring, but mine always rang.

  "Through power…" I started to mutter, so only I could hear it.

  And then at the peak, with power overwhelming me, I could no longer contain it. Thrusting both arms forward with a yell not vocalized, the silence of my scream masked by the thunderous roar of the chain lightning that pierced through the ranks of the minor goblins, crashing into the largest singular goblin standing at the center. Lightning spread like living tendrils as it arced, jumped, and bounced, connecting four other victims in its web of destruction.

  The goblins panicked and shook as the paralysis temporarily took over their bodily functions, and in that moment where wide-eyed minor goblins looked back in confusion, flames washed over them in their entirety, sending them into psychological shock. Goblins burned and in the midst of those flames, I dove into the center of them all and shouted my taunts, commanding all of their manic desires to mutilate me.

  I gave them a target to satiate their rage.

  They charged, mouths open with spittle dripping and flying free as they cursed their profanities in broken English, completely consumed by their anger and blind to what I had in store. As the first wave crashed into me, I knocked a goblin flat onto its back with a shield bash, breaking its nose with the impact as blood dripped down onto my boot.

  Swinging my right arm out and downwards I met another goblin's sword and parried with the hefty weight of my axe driving it back. Swords from every direction came next, three thrusts towards my midsection with two from the top, all easily avoidable as I double stepped backwards.

  A simple dodge, I countered with a swing of my axe only to pullback and roll to the side, a feint to scare the minors as one of the guards lunged forth and attempted to impale me. The second guard followed up with a heavy thrust that was out of reach as I continued to sidestep and backtrack. Arrows flew left and right as I watched for a tell-tale sign of healing, that golden light that would envelop and enshroud a goblin, but it never came.

  Another two thrusts from the spears, barely dodged as one clipped the side of my armor and sent my insides twitching reactively to the side, squirming to avoid the pain that would have followed. A sigh of relief without the sigh, as there was no time to waste, and then, pain registered in my chest as an arrow had hit just beneath my collarbone.

  Gritting my teeth, I continued my retreat, falling back until I heard the thud of the wall behind me hitting the shield strapped to my back. The soft thud barely discernible amidst the sounds of goblins screaming and swords clanging and clashing, but the impact clearly reverberated through my body as it startled me and distracted me.

  A sword flashed across my face as my attention was brought back, my cheek stinging from the gash as my mouth felt as if i
t were split in two. Mouth burning and stinging, I winced as my mask fell to the floor. The ash that had been wafting through the air soon entered my lungs and caused me to nearly choke from the sudden change.

  A cough, followed by a blur and a twitch reaction as I threw my shield up, blocking a sword's slash as it bounced harmlessly off. My health was fine, but my stamina was suffering with every hit. Another sword swing came from my left, and I blocked it with ease. Then two more swords from the right, deflected with my axe.

  One sword stabbed through my thigh, then two glanced off my chest as I kept my eyes on the spears in front of me. There were too many swords to watch, and I was slowly being overwhelmed. A heavy thrust soon followed and with it, the opportunity to counter arrived. Jumping forward and ducking to the side, I rolled on the ground with my shield arm helping to absorb the impact and creating a small bounce at the same time. In a split-second I had traversed the ground between the goblins and the wall and quickly took a knee behind them.

  They turned their eyes first as their heads and bodies began to follow, free arms waving in the air with weapons last. I was ready for them, they were a step slow. Curled up with my arms brought in, electricity formed around me and immediately began to circulate and expand in a field.

  I only had half a second to go.

  A spear came quickly as I held my ground, believing in my cast time.

  As if everything was in slow motion, the spear inched closer millisecond by millisecond as I watched the lightning field expand around me, finally reaching critical mass and exploding in electrically charged brilliance. The instantaneous snap of thunder beat only by the flash of light that accompanied the discharge.

  Every goblin in front of me was flung violently back into the rock wall just four feet away. Swords were dropped from the impact and even the guards were shaken beyond a reasonable degree. The momentum of their charge, disrupted and repelled by the expanding force of my lightning, all culminating in the sudden collision with an immovable wall.