The Mountain Valley War

by M. A. Carlson

  “Good,” I answered.

  “Right, sorry, this is Duncan Donut,” Olaf introduced his new Dwarf friend. “He’s an American like you, otherwise, he’s a decent chap.”

  “Says the limey,” Duncan joked. “I see Icyhot’s with you. Been making friends?”

  “When am I not?” Icyhot asked, grinning.

  “Aside from when you open your mouth, you mean?” Duncan asked, earning a laugh from the rest of us.

  Icyhot though narrowed his eyes. “Duncan, I don’t know what happened to you during the break, but I am not sure how I feel about your change in attitude. I think I preferred the serious, boring, Combat Medic over this . . . fun . . . version.”

  “Only because it’s at your expense, mate,” laughed Olaf.

  “True,” Icyhot replied, adding his own laugh. “Anyway, did you get your rifle sight sorted?”

  “Yeah, it only took a minute, but then I got to talking with Olaf here,” Duncan replied. “Anyway, you find out what’s going on yet?”

  “Actually . . . no, I haven’t gotten any details yet,” said Icyhot, suddenly looking at me.

  “When we get everyone together, it will be easier to explain it to everyone at the same time,” I said.

  “Well, Olaf here was nice enough to tell me about the gremlins. Apparently, they like to take things apart. Disassembled Olaf’s sidearm there while he was holding it and he had no idea until it suddenly fell to pieces,” Duncan said. “I feel a bit like I have been denied vital, need to know, information.”

  “This from the history buff,” said Olaf. “I’m sorry mate, but as soon as you heard the word ‘Gremlin’ you should have at least some idea about them.”

  “War myths versus game myths, how am I to know how much the creators of the game would pull from mythology?” Duncan tried to defend himself.

  “This whole game is filled with mythology. How could you have missed it?” Icyhot asked.

  “I haven’t missed anything . . . might have ignored some,” Duncan replied.

  “Fun as the banter is, we need to get moving, still need to collect the rest of your team,” Rose said, reminding us of our time constraints.

  “Right you are,” said Icyhot. “Let’s get to it.”

  Micaela was up and waiting for us as soon as we came outside. “Ooh, new people. Look Olaf, new people,” she cheered, pointing to Icyhot and Duncan.

  “Yes dear, new people,” said Olaf, teasing her a little, not that she even noticed.

  “Are we expanding? I don’t remember there being an announcement at the last board meeting,” she joked, earning laughs and brightening the atmosphere.

  The bar was more packed than when we entered town if that was possible.

  “Icy, why is Dawn dancing on the bar?” Duncan asked, not a minute after we got inside.

  There was, in fact, a tall leggy high-Elf dancing on top of the bar, her nameplate read .

  “Oi, Rock, what the hell?” Icyhot asked to a Dwarf with very dark obsidian skin, .

  “Lost a bet,” Rock answered, grinning a little as he watched the girl dance on the bar.

  “Well, end the bet, we need to move,” said Icyhot.

  “You’ve become a real stick in the mud since we elected you our fearless leader,” Rock complained.

  “When did that happen?” Duncan asked.

  “Oh, Dawn and I voted on it earlier. The other votes were done in absentia, it was unanimous,” Rock replied.

  Okay, this group was very quickly going to get on my nerves.

  “Alright, Dawn, that’s enough. You can dance for me in private later,” said Rock, winking at the Elf girl.

  “Ha, in your dreams Rock. I still can’t believe I lost that bet,” Dawn complained, as she hopped off the bar to a number of boos from the Dwarves that packed inside.

  “Hey, you’re Dwarves, since when do you like seeing an Elf dance?” Dawn snapped at the assembled Dwarves.

  “What Dwarf would not enjoy watching an uppity Elf embarrass herself dancing on a bar top?” a random Dwarf yelled back.

  Dawn rolled her eyes. “Icy, who is the new guy?” Dawn asked, seeing me.

  “This is Bye-bye Jacko, he’s got a quest for us,” said Icyhot. “The rest of his group is waiting outside. Speaking of outside, we need to go.”

  “Lead on fearless, stick-in-the-mud, leader,” joked Rock, hopping off his stool. He certainly had the look of a Paladin now that I saw him. Shined chainmail armor, a white tabard with a symbol on it I didn’t recognize, but my guess was the God Geb’s. The only thing that looked out of place was the wooden club and shield.

  Outside we shared another round of introductions before moving on to the cave entrance where I spotted Jay and a Dryad I knew.

  “Kimmie,” I greeted her. “I see you escaped Barnum’s all on your own.”

  “Yeah, no thanks to you,” Kimmie snapped back, only to smile and laugh a moment later.

  “I thought Icyhot said you were a Beast Mistress, where are your pets?” I asked.

  Kimmie smiled then brought her fingers to her mouth and whistled loudly. Out of ‘Stealth’, half a dozen mountain lions appeared, all of them level 4 or 5. “Meet the pride.”

  “Very nice, what happened to your wolf?” I asked.

  Kimmie looked down and away, a frown suddenly marring her face. “Pets . . . they can die,” she finally answered.

  “I’m sorry about that,” I said, honestly.

  “It’s okay, I just . . . I just don’t let myself get too close to them anymore,” Kimmie said sadly.

  I felt for her. I would hate to lose Vision. He might be Micaela’s pet, but he felt more like he was part of our group.

  “Alright, enough of the sad stuff,” said Icyhot. “Now, one more round of introductions then maybe we can form a group to get underway.”

  One more round of everyone meeting everyone, and Baby gushing over Jay’s clothes, something the birdman, or Harpy as we found out during his introduction, preened over, and we were finally ready to go.

  “Your show from here, Ollie,” said Icyhot.

  Olaf nodded and added our new allies to our group.

  “First, a couple loot rules. All gold is split evenly. Need before greed, no reserve, not that we would know what to reserve,” Olaf started.

  It was a pretty basic loot rule set. Need before greed was simply if something dropped that you needed, you would get priority over someone who wanted it to sell or to test out. In the event there were two or more people that needed it, there were several factors that decided who got what. Things like ‘how much did that person contribute in the fight?’ or ‘how big of an upgrade is it?’.

  “You expecting loot drops?” Icyhot asked.

  “Yes, so, the quest. There is a Gremlin Eater in there, boss level at least, maybe world boss level,” Olaf explained. “Now, we are probably going to be fighting through huge groups made up of hundreds of level 1 and 2 gremlins. I don’t know how far down into the mine we’ll need to fight, but in addition to the boss, this is an extermination quest, meaning none can survive or we fail.”

  “Rose is our tank, and just because she has a few levels on you Rock, she’ll be our main tank,” started Olaf.

  “Fine by me,” said Rock. “I’ll pick up anything that gets past her.”

  “Baby will be the primary healer for both tanks. Duncan, you good taking on the healing for the ranged fighters?” Olaf asked.

  “Works for me,” said Duncan.

  “Damage dealers, please let the tanks have a chance to grab aggro before you go stab happy, or the tanks will let you die,” said Olaf, basically telling those that focus on dealing damage to give Rose and Rock time before we start killing everything that isn’t us.

  “You adventurers ready?” Digren asked, approaching our group.

  “Buff up, everyone,” ordered Icyhot.

  The cacophony of spells bouncing around us was exciting. I felt downright giddy as I saw my stats jum
p first a little bit of health and strength, then my dexterity jumped up 124 points.

  “Who added +124-Dexterity?” I asked, looking over my list of buffs.

  “That would be Jay,” Icyhot answered helpfully. “He’s an ‘Enhancer’, his class is all about enhancing things. It makes his buffs twice as strong as anyone else. The clothes he makes are twice as strong as what anyone else can make of the same level. He’s awesome . . . and a wimp.”

  “Just rude, Icy,” Jay complained, the corners of his mouth twitching to hide his mirth.

  With all the buff spells seemingly cast, Olaf checked his hand-cannons one last time before pulling out his maul and resting it on his shoulder. Finally, he said loudly, “We’re ready.”

  Chapter 10

  This time, the tunnel felt more dangerous to me. The lack of miners, the lack of picks clanging against rocks, all of it was unsettling.

  “Are we climbing down the chasm?” Rose asked as we approached the first split.

  “We do not have enough climbing equipment for that,” said Digren. “Plus, if there is a Gremlin Eater down there, it would eat us one by one as we got near the bottom.”

  “Just how big is this thing?” Icyhot asked.

  “I have heard legend of Eaters the size of dragons. More likely it will be slightly bigger than this mine tunnel or it would have already tried to leave,” Zid volunteered.

  “So, it’s trapped?” I asked. “As in, it can’t get out?”

  “When it runs out of food or outgrows the space it will dig its way out,” Zid replied.

  “Right, so not climbing down,” said Rose, refocusing the conversation. “Does the main tunnel lead to the bottom of the chasm?”

  “Aye, and deeper still. As for the chasm, it made for too good of an air shaft not to make use of it. Every 100 yards down we opened a tunnel into the chasm,” Digren explained.

  “How far down do we need to go?” Icyhot asked.

  “600-yards,” the Dwarf answered.

  “How long will it take us to get down that far?” I asked, wondering just how big this mine was.

  “If there are no living gremlins, maybe an hour, the decline down is not very steep,” Digren explained.

  “About the gremlins,” Olaf started. “Now that they are frenzied, do we still need to worry about them taking apart our equipment?”

  “No, once they are in a blood frenzy, all they care about is killing,” Digren answered as we continued to walk deeper into the mine. Thankfully after we passed the first fork the miners with us took care of lighting the path with their miner’s helmets and torches.

  As we were passing that first fork, Zid gave an unexpected order. “Dinger and Denslo, check the side tunnels as we go, they shouldn’t be very long. There won’t be many if any at all. The two of you should easily be able to handle it. If you get in trouble, retreat back to us.”

  “Kimmie, why don’t you and your pride help them. Dawn, I’m sure your help would be appreciated as well,” Icyhot suggested, looking to the leafy Dryad and leggy Elf.

  “I suppose it would give us something to do,” said Dawn, shifting into the form of a mountain lion and vanishing from sight.

  “Let’s go hunting, boys and girls,” said Kimmie, her own pride vanishing from view as she directed the pair of Dwarves into the side tunnel while we continued forward. We all breathed a small sigh of relief when they rejoined us a few minutes later stating the side tunnel was clear.

  “First wave!” Rose shouted, spotting the incoming horde before the rest of us. She slammed her linked shields into the ground, making a barrier covering approximately two-thirds of the tunnel from the waist down.

  And there, just ahead of the now crouching and bracing Rose, I could see hundreds of gremlins charging right at us.

  “Rock, on my left,” Rose ordered.

  The Dwarf Paladin quickly complied and filled the space next to her.

  “Love your shields, by the way,” Rock joked, setting up his wooden shield next to hers and blocking off the rest of the tunnel.

  “Thanks, yours is interesting too,” Rose said, grunting as the first of the gremlin bodies impacted.

  “You bet it is. The God Geb gifted it to me along with my club. You cannot do better than a scaling shield and weapon when you’re a complete noob. Apparently, being the first of the adventurers to pledge to him comes with some bonuses,” Rock gabbed along with Rose as if he was discussing the weather and not about to enter a life and death battle. Even so, I was interested in his scaling weapon and shield. Scaling items were weapons and armor that leveled up as the owner did. To be given such a boon when entering the game was a little unfair. Not that I had room to speak.

  “I would be jealous if not for Panther,” said Rose, the little black snake around her neck perking up at hearing his name.

  “Misstress, iss it time for me to kill ssomething?” Panther asked, sounding a little bloodthirsty.

  “Kill anything that getss passt my sshield,” Rose hissed back.

  “Asss you wissh, misstresss,” the black snake replied, his tongue tasting the air ever so briefly.

  “I’ve got first AoE,” I called loudly, letting loose with my ‘Boar Charge’ spell. The spectral boars quickly mowing through the gremlins that just kept coming, ignoring the danger and dying in short order.

  “I’ve got second,” Icyhot shouted.

  I continued my spell channel until the end. As soon as the last of the spectral boars vanished, Icyhot unleashed his own spell.

  “Roiling Fire,” Icyhot said aloud, letting loose a wave of fire that charged down the mine shaft in a straight line for about twenty yards, lighting the gremlins on fire as it passed. While the wave wasn’t enough to kill the gremlins, it did light them on fire which finished the job within a few seconds. It was very effective, unfortunately, the wave of gremlins seemed to keep coming.

  “Pile them up, if you will,” the Dwarven Fire Mage, Zid requested. “Damage dealers, do the best you can to keep them from climbing over the top of the barrier, knock them back or kill them.”

  I ran forward, taking up position just behind Rose, waiting to unleash my ‘Two-handed Polearms II’ subskill ‘Rapid Striking’, my only other ability that was even remotely Area of Effect (AoE) due to the cone of damage it could cause.

  Two-Handed Polearms II

  Level: 22

  Experience: 99.17%

  Current Damage Modifiers

  Damage: +61.00

  Critical Strike Chance: +6.10%

  Subskill: Rapid Striking

  Damage: -3 Strikes: 42 Cone: 30⁰

  Skill Stamina Cost: 230

  I was surprised when I saw the small Harpy, Jay took up the spot next to me.

  “Icy, you owe me so big for this,” Jay grumbled.

  Just then the first of the gremlins impacted against Rose’s shields, quickly being joined by more, each thud registering but not pushing her back in the slightest.

  I was surprised when Panther shot from her neck, mouth open wide as his fangs sank into one of the little creatures that slipped in through the small gap between Rock and Rose’s shields. The rest of Panther’s body coiling around the gremlin, squeezing tighter with every second that passed until it finally expired. Panther uncoiled from the gremlin leaving a dried out and empty husk and slithered back to Rose, retaking his spot around her neck. “Not the tasstiesst blood, but better than nothing.”

  “Okay, that was freaky as hell . . . and kind of cool,” Rock said with a jovial laugh, as he lashed out with a club, a flash of light obliterating another gremlin that started slipping through between his shield and the cave wall.

  As soon as the first gremlin peaked its ugly little mug above the shields it got a face full of spear. If that wasn’t enough, I felt a small breeze pass before the little monster was sliced cleanly in half.

  It was easy at first, just hitting them one or two at a time but as the bodies started to pile up, they were coming in groups of five and six. I knew it
was time to use ‘Rapid Striking’. It successfully kept them at bay but burned through my stamina quickly, it was not a cheap skill at rank two.

  Thankfully, Jay seemed to be up to the task, unleashing regular bursts of wind that would knock back anything in front of him.

  “Right, that should be good,” said Zid, reminding us he was there. “Going to get a might bright in here, do not say I did not warn you.” Zid closed his eyes then chanted for a moment before opening his now burning eyes, they were actually on fire. “Fires of Damnation burn this infestation, ‘Flash Fire’,” he shouted, the area in front of the shield wall was suddenly engulfed in white-hot flames that were indeed bright, blindingly so.

  “Damn the spots,” I howled, once again trying to blink away the spots that filled my vision.

  “I did warn you,” said Zid, chuckled, sounding tired.

  When my vision cleared, and I looked down the tunnel again, I suddenly understood why Hammerton only sent one Fire Mage. The tunnel ahead of us was glowing red-orange, looking melted in some places. But most importantly, not a single gremlin remained, there was barely even ash left over.

  I looked back to see Zid sitting and sweating profusely. Focusing my vision, trying to trigger my ‘Perception’ subskill ‘Analyze Mana’ I was rewarded with seeing his mana pool teetering on empty.

  “I want that spell,” a voice next to me said.

  I turned to see Icyhot, staring at the Dwarf, licking his lips in anticipation.

  “Come see me in Hammerton, I might be willing to teach you. But first, I need to recover my mana,” said Zid tiredly.

  “Quest accepted,” said Icyhot excitedly.

  “Class quest?” I asked, assuming that was the case as no quest was offered to me.

  Icyhot just nodded once.

  “Congrats,” I said before looking back to Zid. “Do you need some water to recover?”

  “Do not waste it,” said Zid, holding up a hand. “My spell has a 30-minute cooldown anyway. My mana will recover well enough by then.”

  “Icyhot, have you got a cooldown on your spell?” I asked the Mage.

  “3-minutes, yours?” Icyhot answered and asked.

  “30-minutes,” I said.