The Mountain Valley War

by M. A. Carlson

  Enemies of Issara’s justice are nearby and must be punished!

  My vision was filled with red and more than a dozen highlighted bodies.

  Slipping into the group from behind, I worked my way toward the middle of the pack of player killers.

  “Tracker says they are just ahead of us, but they have a Hammerton patrol with them now,” said an unknown voice ahead of me. I saw a young woman, an Elf, her nameplate showing . She had a pet boar walking along next to her.

  “So, we kill them too,” said the man she was reporting to. “Still, you did good, your side of bacon did as well,” he added, chortling at his own joke. He was larger, a head taller than the girl with pinkish skin, a slightly upturned nose and large fangs jutting from his mouth, an Orc, maybe a half-Orc. He seemed to be a fighter class of some kind based on his leather armor and the two swords hanging from his belt. His nameplate read . He also had 133 stacks of judgment against him.

  Divine Judgment of the Goddess Issara – Earned by dishonorably killing the Citizens of the World Tree and its adventurers 20 or more levels below their own.

  Only visible to the servant of Issara. Afflicted player takes +20% damage from the servant of Issara. Afflicted player deals -10% damage to the servant of Issara. Upon death all judgements are removed at the cost of 100,000 Experience per Judgement, will reduce levels until all experience penalties are removed.

  Looking around the others in the group, it seemed he was the highest level of the bunch, but there were a few others with a much higher judgment count. I was very glad I hadn’t used my second charge of ‘Justice Bringer’ before I died, or this upcoming fight would be much harder than was necessary.

  Justice Bringer

  Level: 13

  Experience: 89.90%

  Spell Duration: 1 hour

  Spell Cast Speed: Instant

  Spell Charges: 1/1

  Spell Mana Cost: 100

  Recharge: 22:47:18.04

  Spell Effect (Active): All Adventurers and Citizens within 33 yards have their effective level lowered or raised to match your own. Does not work on enemy Citizens, Beasts or Monsters.

  I took up position just a few meters behind the leader of this group of killers. I was waiting until they got close to Rose and her group of patrolmen.

  “Two minutes,” Raging Biff said softly, causing a murmur to spread through the group.

  I was getting nervous. If I waited too long to trigger the effect, one of my friends could die.

  “You!” someone from behind me suddenly howled, a wash of heat hitting me a moment later, stripping away -1,537-HP. “It’s a justice freak, kill him!”

  I was surprised that someone spotted me and almost killed me. I turned to see the source, , the same Dark Elf spellcaster that killed me the first time I logged into the game. Within the first minute of logging into the game in fact. It was shocking to see he had already out-leveled me. It was less shocking to see him running around with a group of player killers. Then I saw the bear that had been chasing me tackling the spellcaster, apparently it was territorial over its kills . . . or the squishy spellcaster made for a more tender T-Bone.

  I didn’t have time to ponder this as I felt something impact my shoulder. It was an arrow, which was followed by a -278-HP dropping my HP down to 405/2,220. Knowing I was going to die again and very soon, I cast ‘Justice Bringer’, the least I could do was make it a little easier for Rose and Baby.

  I turned back to the leader of the group and leapt at him, casting ‘Lesser Holy Shock’ while I was still airborne. My spear hit him center mass as I landed, doing a good amount of damage as the spear pierced into his body, a -952-HP followed from using my ‘Two-Handed Polearms’ subskill ‘Power Thrust’, stripping away almost half of his HP.

  Two-Handed Polearms II

  Level: 22

  Experience: 99.17%

  Current Damage Modifiers

  Damage: +61.00

  Critical Strike Chance: +6.10%

  Subskill: Ligament Rip

  Reduce Enemy Movement and Attack Speed: 50% Target Receives Increased Damage: +30.50% Duration: 15 Seconds Bleed Effect: 7 Damage per Second

  Skill Stamina Cost: 152

  Subskill: Impale

  Damage: 58-60 Bleed Effect: 7 Damage per Second Duration: 15 Seconds

  Skill Stamina Cost: 138

  Subskill: Power Thrust

  Damage: +122.00 Chance to Stun: 10%

  Skill Stamina Cost: 170

  Subskill: Jab

  Damage: +56.50

  Skill Stamina Cost: 132

  Subskill: Rapid Striking

  Damage: -3 Strikes: 42 Cone: 30⁰

  Skill Stamina Cost: 230

  Then I followed up with ‘Justice Strike’, not doing as much damage, just -249-HP damage.

  Justice Strike

  Level: 32

  Experience: 71.41%

  Current Damage Modifier

  Damage: +16.00 Cooldown: 30 seconds

  Skill Stamina Cost: 82

  Skill Effect: A righteous strike in the name of Justice. Increases damage or healing of next spell cast by 42.

  “Don’t just stand there, kill him,” shouted Pwn, wrestling with the bear, a free arm pointing at me, stupidly ignoring the bear that was currently mauling him.

  I ignored Pwn, I wanted to at least kill the leader of this group, but it seemed I wouldn’t live that long. Or at least I didn’t think I would live that long.

  “For Hammerton!” came a battle cry in thick brogue from nearby, that was echoed by several more voices.

  Suddenly, I was embraced by healing magic and a wonderful buff courtesy of the greatest Fairy in the history of Fairies.

  “I’ve got you Bye-bye, finish him off,” called Baby from above me. The small Fairy with her golden dress, short spikey platinum hair and childlike appearance gave me a sense of relief at seeing the Sage healer in all her diminutive glory.

  “I can’t leave you alone for 5-minutes,” complained the all too familiar voice of Rose Thorns, my not-quite-girlfriend. She suddenly appeared next to me, her dual shields smashing into Raging Biff, knocking his HP down even further. Her dark red hair was barely visible beneath her helm, but her ruby red lips and soft glowing red eyes were present and as alluring as I remembered.

  “I thought you could use the workout,” I retorted, ducking under a swipe from Raging Biff’s swords. I countered with a fast ‘Jab’ attack, knocking off a pittance of HP, only -173-HP damage, bringing him close to death but not quite finishing the job.

  “Are you calling me fat?” Rose asked, eyes narrowing slightly as she glared at me, one of her shields lashing out and killing Raging Biff.

  “I would never,” I protested, realizing I might have just pressed the wrong button. “I just meant that I thought you might be bored without me around to liven things up.” Was it a weak excuse? Yes, absolutely.

  Rose snorted. “Not the worst recovery ever, but you’re still going to pay for that comment later.”

  I hung my head slightly, yeah, I figured that was coming.

  Suddenly Rose was close to me, both shields raised defensively, I heard several pings of something hitting her shields.

  “Nice to see you, Jack,” Rose whispered, grinning a little. “Now, what do you say we do a little damage?”

  “I thought you’d never ask,” I replied, matching her grin.

  “Two bow users, you stun the left, I’ll charge the right,” ordered Rose.

  “Alright, but only because it’s you,” I quipped. “Five seconds on the cooldown.”

  Rose winked at me, lowering her shields and vanishing from view.

  Following her charge, I saw the second ranged damage dealer, and cast ‘Lesser Holy Shock’ stunning her. I leaped at her, my spear striking but only landing a glancing blow.

  The girl’s bow suddenly vanished, replaced with a short sword and a dagger, she stabbed at me with the dag
ger. Thankfully the attack bounced harmlessly off the ‘Sage’s Ward’ Baby cast on me earlier, it didn’t stop her at all as she struck again with her sword, again doing no damage. Then the girl smirked.

  I heard the squeal of the boar before I saw the charging beast, it slammed into my side, knocking me to the ground and running right past, its tusks stripping away the last of my ‘Sage’s Ward’ and dealing another -35-HP of damage at the end.

  Night Stalker took advantage of me being down and pounced, trying to drive the sword and dagger through me.

  “Is this a bad time, mate?” the all too familiar voice of Heath asked, his bad British accent hard at work. The Thief appeared between the Beast Mistress and me, his foot lashing out and kicking her away from me. “You get the pig, I’ll deal with her.”

  A loud squeal signified the little beast was coming back. I sprang back to my feet, looking for the side of bacon. I flipped forward over the charging brute, activating ‘Jab’ for the fast attack as it passed below me, scoring a glancing blow for -73-HP and barely denting the things health pool.

  It charged again but this time I was better prepared, waiting until it was maybe ten feet away, I hit it with ‘Lesser Holy Shock’, planning for it to tumble end over end when the stun took effect. The spell washed over the beast and had no effect nor dealt any damage. Too late I realized and tried to flip over it, the beast catching my leg and nearly ripping my foot off as it passed.

  I landed with a crunch and a snap as my ankle broke, gaining a ‘Crippled’ debuff notification on it. I could see the boar was already coming back for me, but I didn’t know what I could do at this point. Rose’s timely intervention was the only thing that saved me.

  Rose placed herself between the boar and I, her two shields interlocked and braced for the impact. The boar hit the shield with a resounding gong, causing Rose to slide back a full meter, stopping just short of me.

  There were two loud booms right after.

  “Olaf, you’re late,” said Rose, unhinging her shields and restoring my vision of the now very dead boar with two giant bullet holes in it courtesy of my Minotaur friend.

  “It’s Micaela’s fault, she saw this little gift shop, and just had to stop for souvenirs,” Olaf replied, already working to reload his hand-cannons.

  “Not true,” Micaela protested, as she hacked and slashed at a robe wearing spellcaster, . “Olaf refused to stop and ask for directions.”

  “Typical male,” said Rose, looking for her next target and vanishing from sight, charging the next enemy.

  Vision appeared mid leap, as his jaws clamped down around the spellcaster’s throat, silencing the spellcaster and doing major damage. Micaela killed him a second later when Butch, her ax, howled loudly and slammed down on the spellcasters head, sending him for respawn, his low level making it impossible for him to have judgments against him.

  Vision vanished from view and Micaela was already running for another of the player killers.

  “Mate, this isn’t really the place to be laying about,” joked Olaf, firing over my head. “Honestly, Bye-bye, heal yourself already and get back in the fight.”

  I could only roll my eyes as I chanted for the ‘Lesser Heal’, targeting my ankle specifically.

  Lesser Heal

  Level: 28

  Experience: 14.21%

  Spell Heal: 61-80

  Spell Cast Speed: 2.00 seconds

  Spell Mana Cost: 66

  Spell Effect (Active): Heal a single target.

  The bone realigned with a disgusting snap, I was very glad pain was muted in the game or I imagine that would have hurt a lot more.

  I was back on my feet, a red aura looked to be trying to retreat. “Oh no you don’t,” I muttered, leaping through the air at the retreating figure, hitting him with ‘Lesser Holy Shock’ before I landed. I made short work of , another spellcaster. He was more focused on running away in an effort to keep his levels than trying to fight me off.

  “Jack,” called Rose, drawing my attention back to her. She stood stalwart in front of an I don’t know what. I couldn’t tell what the race was, the man . . . or woman was wrapped from head to toe in heavy plate mail armor. also stood at least a foot taller than her, he carried a massive tower shield in one hand and a mace with a spiked ball in the other. He was hammering at Rose’s shields, slowly chipping away at her health.

  I cast ‘Lesser Holy Fire’ first, adding the damage over time as I began to run.

  Lesser Holy Fire

  Level: 59

  Experience: 11.47%

  Spell Damage: 29-31 per second

  Spell Cast Speed: Instant Cooldown: 10 seconds

  Spell Mana Cost: 158

  Spell Duration: 30 seconds

  Spell Effect (Active): Burn a single target with Holy fire. (Stackable x3)

  I added ‘Lesser Holy Shock’ when I got closer, then struck with ‘Justice Strike’ expecting to deal a massive amount of boosted damage after spending a large chunk of my SP to increase my strength and physical attack power with my ‘Body Control’ skill.

  Body Control

  Level: 38

  Experience: 6.23%

  Subskill: Sudden Boost

  Strength Boost: +1.38-Strength to a specific muscle group for 5 seconds (additional stacks reset timer)

  Skill Stamina Cost: 20 per boost

  It was disturbing to see -53-HP float up from the armored player. More so when my ‘Lesser Holy Fire’ damage ticked for -51-HP.

  “Use your spells, Jack,” Rose ordered, doing her best to survive the battering from the guy who was content to ignore me for the time being.

  I added another stack of ‘Lesser Holy Fire, bringing the damage up to -102-HP per second and doing significantly more than my spear seemed to be able to do against this guy.

  I tried ‘Holy Smite’ as it was one of my only other damage spells and I finally got some results, though still weak in my mind, -196-HP floated up from him.

  Holy Smite

  Level: 26

  Experience: 87.54%

  Spell Damage: 50-57

  Spell Cast Speed: 1.50 seconds

  Spell Mana Cost: 72

  Spell Effect (Active): Smite a single target with holy damage.

  Tank laughed, then with a thick Russian accent he taunted me. “Is that best you can do? Ha, I know babies do more damage.”

  I narrowed my eyes and just kept casting, adding my third stack of ‘Lesser Holy Fire’ then hitting him with a ‘Lesser Holy Shock’ and ‘Justice Strike’ for the bonus magic damage. Then I hit him again with ‘Holy Smite’, a whopping -247-HP.

  “We need casters on this guy,” called Rose, getting frustrated with my lack of damage.

  “I’m coming,” shouted Micaela, swinging her ax, ‘Sundance’, throwing a ball of fire that impacted with the player named Tank, finally dealing some decent damage.

  Tank turned to his new attacker, looking to attack her instead of Rose, but by then it was too late. A few more shots from Sundance, the fire damage eating through his HP rapidly while my sad ‘Holy Smite’ casts ate a little more in addition to the ‘Lesser Holy Fire’ continuing to tick away. He might have been the toughest player we fought yet but with the forces arrayed against him, he finally dropped, banished from the province and his level most likely reduced to 1.

  “Jack, you really need to do something about those spells,” said Rose, already looking for her next target.

  “I know, I know,” I groused, tell me something I don’t already know.

  “Bye-bye Jacko, I’m going to kill you!” the voice of the man that started all this howled, drawing my attention back to Pwn Star69 as a blast of magical energy struck me in the shoulder and spun me around slightly.

  “I don’t think so,” I said, coming out of the spin and turning to face him as quickly as I could, I ducked under another magical blast from the wand he had in hand. Pwn looked worse for wear, his robes were covered in cl
aw marks and he barely had half of his HP remaining. The corpse of the bear next to him suggested the beast hadn’t been up to finishing the job but had taken a good bit of health anyway. “He’s mine,” I shouted, seeing Rose getting ready to charge.

  “You almost ruined my toon,” complained Pwn, throwing another blast of magic from the wand, this one a glancing blow to my side. Thankfully, the wand blast didn’t do much damage. Looking closer, I could see the idiot was using whatever MP he recovered to attack after he wasted all his mana with his first attack. “Do you have any idea the kind of damage you did to me?”

  “I have a hunch,” I replied, casting a ‘Lesser Holy Shock’ stunning him. I rushed ahead and struck him hard with ‘Justice Strike’, weakening his magic resistance. I added ‘Lesser Holy Fire’.

  It was the only other instant cast spell I had available to me. The only other damage spell I had was ‘Holy Smite’ and the damage it dealt was not very good.

  The fact was, none of my magic spells were very strong, my own fault. I just didn’t spend the time training them like I did with my physical skills. It was something I had promised myself I would work on. Unfortunately, the middle of a life and death battle was not the place for such things.

  I struck with my spear, activating the subskill ‘Power Thrust’, getting a critical strike and causing -579-HP damage.

  “Curse you, I hope you die in a fire,” raged Pwn, ironically my ‘Lesser Holy Fire’ ticked and killed him. It was somewhat cathartic to kill that guy again.

  There was no time to rest. There were a lot more players to kill. I was targeting those with the red aura’s, making sure the player killers with judgments against them would have their levels removed and get them banished from the province. The more player killers I could remove as a threat the better.