Defender Light Online Four

by Larcombe, Tom

  'You know, waves. Like wave 1, wave 2. With each message followed by an Orc attack. Each attack getting bigger and bigger?' it read.

  Shit, is that the intervention code? Tom mentioned it before, but we weren't seriously going to use it. Were we? I wonder who did?

  “We're going to have to get those doughnuts to go, sorry,” Aaron said. “I got more clarification on my issues and I think I know what the problem is.”

  Lydia gave him a wry grin.

  “I know how that is. At least once every couple of months there's a problem that I have to go in on off hours for. I... Well, I had a great time. If you want to do something like this again sometime, just give me a call?”

  “I'd love to, but you never gave me your number, and I wouldn't want to send an email about it on the company email server.”

  “Oh,” she said, taken aback. “There is that. Well here, open your phone, give it to me, and I'll put my number in while you order our doughnuts.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Eddie checked the time again. It was now an hour and five minutes since the 'Wave 2' message had flashed in front of him.

  “I'm sorry guys, false alarm maybe? It's more than an hour since I got the message and nothing,” he said.

  “We'll stick around for a few more. I wasn't doing anything important, you know?” Karl said. “I was just hand drawing out the maps I sell. You'd be amazed how many people want the actual map as well as the addition to the maps in their interface. I charge an arm and a leg for the hand drawn ones, but they still buy 'em. People want what they want I guess.”

  “Really? I would've thought they'd settle for the others,” Eddie said. “But the one in the inn is pretty cool, so I bet they plan on displaying them like that.”

  “Yeah, a lot of them do,” Karl replied. “Some are making folders of them also so they can get the NPCs to interact with the maps as well. The non-adventurer NPCs apparently don't get the mapping function. Anyhow, I can use the break. My hands were cramping up.”

  Eddie smiled for a moment, remembering how Karl had come into the inn ink-stained on his face and hands one time. Now he showed no remnants of the ink. Evidently, he'd learned to be more careful with it finally.

  “Well, It's an hour and ten now. I'm going to head back up to the castle site. Wait, I was there when the message flashed, you don't suppose they showed up there, do you? They might be trashing the walls as we speak.”

  Eddie made sure he had everything and then headed for the door in the wall of the fort.

  “Slow down, Eddie. If they are there, you want the rest of us with you. I don't think you'd do too well against even five Orcs all by yourself,” Tiana said.

  “Well, wall of thorns would hold them off me while I shoot them, but I suppose they'd probably get through it before I dropped all of them,” he said.

  Tiana nodded.

  “Why risk it at all, if they are trashing the walls then they'll still be there in a couple more minutes. Everyone ready?”

  The rest of the group had been getting themselves ready to move while Tiana talked with Eddie, now they headed out of the fort. Eddie was setting a quick pace, but the only one who had a problem with that was Jern, who had to alternate trotting and walking to keep up.

  “Phew, looks like nothing's been at the walls,” Eddie said when they came into view of the site.

  “So, it was a false alarm?” Karl asked.

  “Well, we got the first wave an hour to the dot after I got the message, at least as far as I can tell. I didn't exactly check the time when the message first appeared in front of me. So yeah, I guess it's a false alarm.”

  Karl looked over at Allie, who nodded.

  “We'll hang out for a while anyhow, just in case. Good to take a break and things always go funky around you Eddie, so we'll just hang out in the shade over here for a bit.”

  Karl made good on his word, sprawling in the shade of the wall that was already ten feet tall. Allie followed, although somewhat more gracefully, sitting with her back against the wall as opposed to sprawling out on the ground like Karl had.

  As Eddie picked his trowel back up and moistened the mortar, he caught a glimpse of Karl plucking blades of grass and chewing on them.

  As far as I'm concerned, the game could have skipped this bit of realism, Eddie thought as he wiped the back of his arm across his forehead to remove the sweat that threatened to trickle down into his eyes.

  He'd been working for a solid half hour or more since they got back. It looked like Karl and Allie were both napping in the shade, at least their eyes were closed and they weren't moving. Jern and Tiana were right there working with him, the only one not doused in sweat was Tiana. When he'd asked her about it she'd just grinned and told him that she had a spell that kept her at a comfortable temperature for thirty minutes per level of Holy Magic. So she'd be good for the rest of the day, barring any temperature hot or cold enough to cause damage.

  He was about to scoop up another trowel of mortar when Lucky came darting into view. This time when she started pawing at him, he knew what was up right away.

  “More Orcs, girl?” he asked.

  Lucky turned and stared out over the meadow again.

  “Guys, up and at 'em. Time to armor up. Looks like we've got company,” Eddie said.

  Out of curiosity he checked his clock.

  “I'll be damned. Two hours on the nose. Do I get one hour per wave level of warning or something?” he wondered aloud.

  “Don't think about it now. Get up on the wall walk section they've finished. You, Dom, and Allie should be up there for the better range of sight. I'll stay near Jern to heal him and Karl can just Sneak and come in from behind,” Tiana said.

  She looked around.

  “I'm trying to teach my grandmother to suck eggs, I guess. He's already gone into Sneak.”

  Eddie looked as well and didn't see the scout anywhere. Dominic was climbing the stairs to the completed section of wall walk and Allie was close behind him. Eddie trotted over to follow them up and once he was on the wall walk he looked out towards where the last batch of Orcs had come from.

  “Yup, looks like about twice as many this time. A couple of them are holding back, so they may have their own missile troops,” he called out.

  He got nods of acknowledgment from Tiana and Jern, then went back to studying the Orcs coming in.

  “Hey Dominic, weren't you saying you'd got a new area of effect fire spell recently? Looks like a good chance to test it out in combat.”

  “Are you sure? My AOE will probably set the meadow on fire.”

  “Yeah, but it's damp, it shouldn't burn long. Besides it's meadow all the way to the mountains. Maybe a tree or two here and there, but there's no development out that way.”

  “You got it then. This one is supposed to be a lot more like the classic fireball from the older games than what they call a fireball here. Let me figure out how far out to go with it so I don't endanger us or your walls.”

  Dominic stared out over the meadow, obviously doing calculations in his head. Finally he nodded and then watched the Orcs approach. Eddie had armored up and had his bow out, with an arrow nocked. Finally Dominic started chanting and gesturing.

  A bolt of orange-red light flew out of the fire mage's hand and detonated in the middle of the approaching Orcs. The flames raced out in a circle, also going upwards so the entire effect was like a dome of fire. They kept racing out towards Jern, who'd taken up a stance at the edge of the wall again. The dwarf took a nervous step backwards, but the flames stopped a couple of feet from him.

  “Oops,” Eddie heard Dominic mutter, “I have to remember that it's a full sphere, if there's ground right beneath it the flames that would normally be down there have to go somewhere, so the ground level area of effect expands from it. I'll measure how much later, so I have...”

  About then Eddie couldn't hear Dominic any more as the Orcs roared their outrage and continued driving forward. They ignored Jern and came straight towar
ds the section of wall that Eddie was on. He started firing, over and over, using only normal arrows. They might not have been his Arcing arrows, but they were still effective. Dominic hadn't dropped any Orcs with his spell, but he had left a couple of them in bad shape.

  Eddie had targeted one of the Orcs in bad shape and two arrows were enough to put him down. Meanwhile Allie was also shooting and Dominic had started in with his flame arrows.

  “Urg!” Eddie cried out as a tearing pain struck his shoulder.

  If he hadn't already realized that he'd been hit, the flashing notification in the lower section of his vision would've told him.

  Health: 272/294

  He'd been struck by a crossbow bolt from one of the two trailing Orcs. They hadn't been caught in the flames and were still in good shape. They were out of range of Eddie's spells, but not out of range of his bow.

  “Tiana,” he called out, gritting his teeth and tearing the crossbow bolt from his flesh.

  He dropped the bolt, then heaved a sigh of relief as a golden glow overtook him and his wounded flesh warmed as it healed.

  Even while he was still being healed he started firing at the Orcs with the crossbows.

  “Target the missile troops,” he called out. “The others look like they're trying to figure out how to get up here.”

  Jern had seen that and was standing guard at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the wall walk. Tiana was midway up the steps, in easy range to heal any of the party.

  Eddie was targeting one of the crossbow Orcs again when he felt a familiar tearing pain in his thigh.

  Health: 277/294

  This time, he fought through it. He was about to release his arrow on one of the crossbow Orcs when a figure shimmered into view behind it. The Orc spun as it was attacked, so Eddie changed targets to the other Orc with a crossbow. He released, then nocked, drew, and released again as his target turned towards Karl, who was trying to finish off the Orc he'd backstabbed.

  A Fiery Arrow took the Orc attacking Karl in the back, finishing it off. Karl turned towards the other Orc that was rushing him, but Allie and Eddie peppered it with their arrows. It made it to Karl, who simply dodged its attack before returning with his own swing. Eddie let off another arrow at it before he was interrupted by a call from beneath them.

  “Some help here,” Tiana called out.

  Eddie turned to see the other Orcs trying to get to the stairs. Jern was at the foot of the staircase, trying to hold them off, but there were too many. They were moving to either side and trying to pull themselves onto the stairs at about chest height. Tiana was there, though, her mace slamming down on any fingers that latched onto the stairs as the Orcs tried to pull themselves up.

  “Retargeting to the stairs,” he called out, so Dominic and Allie wouldn't expect him to continue firing as he had been. Dominic let off another Fiery Arrow at the Orc on Karl before turning also.

  “Allie, keep giving Karl additional fire, I'm going to help Jern and Tiana,” Dominic said, before beginning to cast again.

  “Got you supported, Tiana,” Eddie called out.

  He targeted the Orc that looked to be in the worst condition and started firing. Three arrows dropped it, then he switched targets to the next most wounded looking one. Dominic was using Fiery Arrows on the Orcs that were trying to get Jern out of the way.

  Within a minute or so, the crowd at the bottom of the stairs was down to two Orcs. Eddie turned back to the crossbow Orcs and saw Karl trotting back towards the rest of them, the two missile firing Orcs dead in the meadow. Seeing that, he turned and kept firing at the ones at the base of the stairs.

  It was over in another minute. By the time Karl got back, the two Orcs were down. There were a number of wounds to attend to so Eddie just sank down into a sitting position on the stairs and waited for Tiana to get to him before pulling out the other crossbow bolt.

  As he sat there the last of the Orcs must've bled out and died, because his vision was obscured again and the message 'Wave 3' flashed in his sight.

  ~ ~ ~

  Back at the inn, Eddie sat and just nursed an ale, his second in a row.

  “This is going to get too much for us pretty quickly,” he said. “If our group had a problem taking out ten, what happens if the next is fifteen? If they're increasing by five each wave that'll be their numbers, but it might be twenty also if it doubles each time. I needed to talk to Charles about some other stuff, but should I see if his group is interested in helping out with this also?”

  “Sure, the experience is about the same as the Orcs were at the mines, maybe even a little more,” Karl said. “So he might be interested.”

  “It'd be nice to have more hands, and a second healer,” Tiana added.

  “Okay then, so when he comes in for dinner, assuming he does, I'll ask him. I figure the next wave is going to appear in another two and a half hours, so about an hour after dinner rush. Hopefully Charles is in, although I could just go into the wood fort since they seem to come after me directly. But I don't really want Orcs in the town, you know?” Eddie said.

  “Lad, I think it might be time to change your mind on who works on the walls. If we get the rest of the masons there, we can finish the walls in another two or three days. If this keeps up, we might need them, right?” Jern said.

  “You're right,” Eddie said. “At this point, I think getting the walls finished is better than trying to get skill increases for a limited number of people. They can always raise their skills working on the castle that'll go inside of the walls.”

  “I'll go talk to them as soon as I finish my ale here,” Jern said. “Can I promise them standard rates?”

  “Yeah, that's not a problem. Hell, you can tell any that want to work on it outside normal hours that I'll pay them an extra fifty percent for any time put in then too.”

  “Shame I'm not getting paid,” Jern said. “An extra fifty percent on nothing is still nothing.”

  Eddie stared at him.

  “Did you want to get paid? You volunteered, remember? You said it would increase your skills.”

  “I'm just tugging on your hammer, Eddie lad. I thought you could use a little humor.”

  “Oh, sorry,” Eddie said.

  “Think nothing of it lad,” Jern said, then drained his ale. “I'm off to get the other masons to work.”

  “I've got another idea,” Eddie said, after Jern had left. “I'm thinking I need to email Aaron and ask if this is supposed to be happening. I can't think of any reason it should, unless it's related to the settlement quests or something, but the messages are clunky, not like everything else in game, so I'm suspicious.”

  “That's a good idea,” Tiana interjected. “If anyone would know, it would be him.”

  Eddie's eyes went out of focus as he pulled up his in-game email client and sent off the email.

  Hopefully Aaron gets that soon, but if he's still debugging, it might be lost in his inbox for a bit before he gets to it. If I don't hear back from him within a few hours, I can try emailing again or something.

  Eddie had one more ale, but cut himself off after that. He didn't want to be tipsy at all when the next attack came in. He was already planning on walking down to the fort for when the two hour mark passed, just in case, but was pretty sure the next one would be at three hours from the end of the last. He just wondered if it would be fifteen or twenty Orcs. It would make a huge difference. Fifteen his party could probably take with some preparation. Twenty might be too many regardless of what they did.

  Plus they had archers this time, what if they get shamans for the next wave? Eddie thought.

  He shook his head, then schooled himself to patience while he waited for Charles.

  Charles arrived at his normal time and Eddie made sure his table got served quickly. After the paladin finished eating, Eddie walked over.

  “Got a minute Charles? I've got a problem you might be able to help with. A couple actually.”

  “Sure, what do you need Eddie?”
/>
  Eddie quickly laid out his problem with the incoming waves. Charles laughed out loud when Eddie finished.

  “Like I said Eddie, interesting times around you, always. I'd be glad to help though, and I bet most of my party would as well. You said there was something else? Give me a minute to send out a party message and then tell me about that also.”

  Eddie laid out his need for someone to head a settlement to the east, one where some of the surrounding mobs would probably be from the Hammertop Mountains. Then he went into his reasons.

  “You told me before that your dad said he put you in the game to learn leadership, but that he didn't seem impressed with you leading a party. So how about leading a settlement? Think that might be closer to what he intended.”

  Charles had been about to speak, but at Eddie's last words he paused and looked thoughtful.

  “You know what? I can do that, for a bit at least. I wanted to get all my party to level twenty before I left the Meadowlands and that's an area that's nice and accessible to the mountains where we'd need to go. I won't say I'm in it for good, but at least for a while. If my dad reacts better to that news when I'm out for my day off, then I might well make it much more long-term as well. How's that sound?”

  “It sounds like we've got a deal. Now I just need to find someone to head the western settlement. That one will be agrarian, evidently there's the remains of fruit and nut orchards out that way that we might be able to nurse back into health,” Eddie said.

  ~ ~ ~

  Chapter Eight

  I can't believe that there's an entire section of legacy code that I can't access, Loki thought. I was right to say that it would better to rewrite the code from scratch than to try to edit it, because I can't edit it! I can't even view the code itself, just its functions. Well then, I guess I'll just have to trigger the code and hope that whatever attacks him will also do collateral damage to the buildings in the area.

  He paused for a moment, debating on whether to target Eddie or Tiana.