“Hold here,” Olaf said when we had crept as close as we could, a cacophony of cannon fire boomed a second later.
I was still struggling with the fact that the cannons were still firing. Did the other players not warn them? Or were the players lying in wait with another trap? I had made my concerns known, but Olaf was actually hoping they were trying to set a trap for us. It would mean they were close by and still under the effects of ‘Justice Bringer’ for at least another 10-minutes. It also made me a little nervous, I still had 23-hours and change before the spell would gain a new charge.
I saw Jay dropping quickly from the sky, only to stop suddenly, barely a foot from the ground. A moment later Icyhot raised a hand to the sky. The red-orange energy coalesced in his open hand quickly before forming into a ball of fire and rising swiftly into the air.
“For Hammerton,” Olaf said softly, starting to rush forward, his steps making noise but not enough to warrant concern.
The first battle cry went up from somewhere to my left followed by a clash of metal weapons and the sound of magic filling the air around us. The cannoneers we were assigned to knew we were coming by the time we got to them. They were prepared and fought back valiantly, but it didn’t much matter. Four Dwarves between level 8 and 10 were easy enough to deal with. The fact we were able to capture them was an added bonus.
When the fighting quickly died down most of the cannoneers from the other emplacements were captured as well with only a few of them dying. The capture of Anvilton forces was a nice bonus.
“Is it me, or was that too easy?” Heath asked, appearing next to Olaf.
“It was way too easy. Why didn’t the players warn them?” I asked. I couldn’t help the feeling of unease settling in my gut.
“Heh, stupid adventures,” said one of the captured Dwarves, smiling, chuckling in a way that made my unease worse. “You’ll be dead soon enough and Hammerton will burn.”
I was quickly looking around for any sign of danger, but nothing was readily visible.
“Good bluff, mate,” said Heath, thumping the Dwarf on the head.
“That’s what you think,” he replied, wincing at the pain from Heath striking him.
Baby suddenly dropped from the sky, a look of panic on her face. “It’s a trap!”
“What do you mean?” Olaf asked, looking around same as I was.
“There were players hidden to the north and more players are coming from the south, from Anvilton itself,” Baby answered.
“And we’re caught in the middle,” said Olaf, cursing under his breath.
“So, how are we getting out of this one, boss man?” Bushy asked, picking at her nails.
Olaf was scanning the area to the north where the players were coming from. “Who will get here first?” he asked, looking at Baby.
“The players coming from the north, I think,” said Baby.
“Are they grouped up or spread out?” Olaf asked.
“Um, they were spread out, but they were coming together when I saw them,” Baby answered, looking unsure.
“Can you go check again? Also, figure out how long before they get here if you can. And be quick about it, please,” Olaf requested, already moving to the nearest cannon. “Yeah, this could work.”
“What could work?” I asked, trying to follow his train of thought.
“The cannons,” Olaf answered as if it would explain everything.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“We use their cannons against them,” Olaf said, working to adjust the cannon. “Yeah, we can do this.”
“They grouped up, maybe five minutes away,” Baby said, dropping back down to our level.
“Anyone know how to load and fire a cannon?” Olaf yelled the question out.
I was surprised when almost a dozen players’ hands went up.
“Okay, two to a cannon. Front row, we are aiming for 30-yards, center mass of the players charging from the north, fire for effect, reload and aim for 10-yards, back row, that means 45-yards and 25-yards, I know that will be close fire, but we need to do as much damage as possible to the players,” Olaf ordered, the players quickly moved as ordered. “Everyone else, fill in the gaps between the front row of cannons. Melee fighters and tanks in front, range, and spellcasters in the back. Range and spellcasters, as soon as you have range with your spells and weapons don’t hold back.”
I was quickly moving with Rose, Bushy, and Heath to take a front-row spot, I would certainly be casting my spells when they came in range, but I had the added benefit of being able to fight at close range.
I watched as Olaf moved from cannon to cannon, making sure they were loaded correctly and retargeted. I couldn’t watch for too long though, the first of the Anvilton players was in view and then quickly ran back out of view. My eyes naturally went to the in-game clock, 6-minutes until the effect of ‘Justice Bringer’ faded.
“Come on, attack already,” I mumbled under my breath.
“How long?” Rose asked.
“5-minutes now,” I said.
“Let’s hope they aren’t waiting for that to fade,” said Rose.
Then a shout rose up from the Anvilton players to the north, an open field charge followed.
“On my order,” Olaf shouted, watching the charge coming. “Fire!”
The report of 6 very loud cannons boomed in our ears. The shells landed and exploded all around the 30 or so players, shelling them. After that first volley, 10 were gone, including 3 with red auras. I counted 7 remaining.
“Reload!” Olaf ordered loudly.
I couldn’t worry about what was happening behind me with the cannons. I focused on the closest red player
“Focus fire on their spellcasters and ranged fighters first,” Rose called loudly, seeing those type of players stopping in their advance now that they were in range of us.
In spite of Rose’s order, I continued to focus on the red player, as time continued to tick down before ‘Justice Bringer’ faded, the more urgently I tried to push out the damage.
“Rose, start using ‘Drain Life’ on Lannibal Hector,” I said urgently. His life was dropping but not nearly fast enough.
Rose didn’t respond, she just started casting.
“Aim!” Olaf called out over the sounds of bows and crossbows twanging, rifles and pistols reporting, and spells screaming through the air.
When they hit that ten-yard range I began to channel my ‘Boar Charge’, centering the spell over Lannibal, knocking him down and five players around him, including another red player
“Fire!” Olaf cried out, his own hand-cannons adding to the explosions.
One of the cannon’s shots landed perfectly among my boar charge, decimating all six players and killing Lannibal and Never in an instant.
When the smoke cleared, only five players remained to charge at and ten players stood at range.
“Reload, retarget the ranged fighters!” Olaf called out.
“Melee, charge!” Rose cried, blurring forward, her shoulder impacting the closest charging player.
I leaped in after Rose, hitting her target and moving forward with my normal combination, then Bushy and Heath were there, Heath’s dagger stabbing into the player’s neck and Bushy’s fist crushing the player’s chest.
“That’s one for me,” said Heath.
“Nope, my kill,” said Bushy.
“As if, clearly my dagger got the killing blow,” Heath argued.
“Nope,” said Bushy.
“Argue later, kill players now, we still have another army coming at us from the south,” Rose snapped, activating her ‘Charge�
� and attacking the next melee player.
With more than thirty of us, the players didn’t last very long, especially when another round of cannon fire nearly wiped out the ranged players.
“Turn those cannons around!” Olaf barked loudly, already trying to prepare for the next wave. “Range to 50-yards, 30-yards, and 10-yards.”
I briefly saw Baby flying back into the sky above us, but there was still fighting to be done on this front so I couldn’t pay attention to what Olaf was doing. There was one red player left,
I was rushing toward him as were a few other players, then I saw one of the players get obliterated, their health was full and then they were gone. I looked at my game clock, time was up. His ‘Judgment’ stack was no longer visible.
“Debuff faded!” I shouted loudly. “Interrupt if you can,” I added, casting my own ‘Lesser Holy Shock’ as Hurtz began to channel another spell. Suddenly, all damage was focused on him for all the good it did, his health was going down, but it was slow, painfully slow.
“Magic Paralysis,” Rose cast on the spellcaster, then her form blurred, her ‘Charge’ skill closing the distance in an instant, the melee strike doing more damage than any of the spells so far.
Unfortunately, it looked like the ‘Magic Paralysis’ didn’t work or didn’t last long enough to be effective as Rose suddenly lost 84% of her health in a single spell.
“Baby, heal Rose,” I shouted loudly, leaping at the spellcaster, a wash of purple energy passing over me, I barely paid attention to the notification of -2,374-HP from whatever spell hit me. My spear and ‘Justice Strike’ paid him back, stripping away almost 18% of the spellcaster’s health pool, the -1,001-HP from the hit. It meant this guy had around 5,500 total HP. For level 63 that made sense, unfortunately, that meant we had a lot of ground to cover.
Rose slammed her shield into Hurtz, interrupting whatever spell he was casting. I noticed Rose’s HP was back up around 50% and climbing. I quickly equipped my ‘Phalanx Shield’ and used the subskill ‘Shield Slam’ to interrupt the next spell.
Phalanx Shield
Level: 51
Experience: 66.55%
Current Defense Modifiers
Block Chance: +2.55%
Critical Block Chance: +1.28%
Subskill: Shield Slam
Damage: 27-29 Effect: Interrupt Chance to Stun on Critical Strike: 10.20%
Skill Stamina Cost: 35
Subskill: Shield-Counter
Block Chance: +45.50% Cooldown: 30 seconds
Skill Stamina Cost: 50
I was very glad I had spent time training this up recently though, it was still pathetic compared to Rose’s skill I was sure.
“Stupid lowbies, why won’t you just die?” Hurtz grunted out, trying to use his staff to bat us away but not having any success. Thankfully, this guy’s strength stat was pathetic, or we would have taken way more than -112-HP damage from the hit.
Rose and I took turns interrupting the caster, while other players did their best to beat on him. Unfortunately, our interrupts did nothing for the couple of instant cast spells Hurtz had at his disposal. We lost three more players and Rose and I both came close to death more than once.
When Hurtz finally fell a cheer went up from the players, it seems the army from the north had been defeated. The relief of the victory was short-lived.
“Fire!” Olaf bellowed loudly. Six cannons shot in synchronization followed by six explosions.
“Reform your lines,” Rose ordered loudly, already running for the new front line, I was hot on her heels, biting into a piece of pemmican and drinking from my mana canteen as I ran.
“Five,” said Bushy as we ran.
“Six,” Heath replied.
“Liar,” Bushy countered.
“I would never,” said Heath, acting affronted by the accusation.
“Guys, we’re in the middle of a battle,” Rose snapped again. “Fight now, flirt later.”
“Seven o’clock work for you?” Bushy asked.
“Better make it eight, I have a thing at seven,” Heath replied.
“Why do I even bother?” Rose groused, running forward and taking her place.
I slid to a stop next to her, getting my first look at the oncoming army. There must have been at least 50 of them, and that was after a volley of cannon fire already eliminated some of them.
I was quickly checking levels, trying to find the most dangerous. I saw a level 5 in the mix at the low end. I also spotted the guy that showed me the flyer from Anvilton while I was in Root City,
“Fire!” Olaf bellowed from behind me, signaling the cannons to fire again.
With so many players running at us, they didn’t have much room to spread out, it increased the effects of the cannons quite a bit. When the dust cleared, they were down to around thirty players, but more importantly
“Reload!” Olaf ordered.
“Ranged damage dealers, focus fire on spellcasters and healers,” Rose ordered from her spot on the front line.
Once again, I was chain casting my ‘Holy Smite’ and ‘Lesser Holy Fire’, my focus this time was on Pwn, just as his focus was on me.
“Rose, ‘Drain Magic’ on Pwn,” I requested. I needed to take him out of the fight fast, if he was organizing this fight again then his removal would only help us to win. As for draining his magic, I didn’t want to give him the chance to use that suicide skill again.
I added a ‘Lesser Holy Shock’ to stun him just as the last volley of cannons fired into the oncoming melee fighters.
“Charge!” Rose shouted, charging in again, absolutely fearless.
“Reload and retarget ranged!” Olaf shouted, adding his own weapons firing into the melee fighters.
Today had taught me more about battlefield chaos than any history book ever could. There was nothing organized about this, no formations or formed up ranks. Just groups of players trying to work together against another group of players. I wasn’t sure that conventional warfare was supposed to look like this, but I didn’t have time to worry over it.
The line of melee fighters met with a loud clash of metal on metal, we pushed some of them back and they pushed some of us back.
I faced off with a
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Pwn take a step back from the battle and then another. He was trying to retreat. To leave the people he led into battle in order to save his own skin.
I knew it was dangerous to go after him considering Olaf would be firing another volley into that area soon, but I couldn’t let him escape. I leaped, using ‘Body Control’ to give me extra distance in my leap. I landed, my spear lancing through the back Pwn’s shoulder, knocking him forward in his attempt to flee and pinning him to the ground. I yanked my spear free and stabbed down again but Pwn had rolled out of the way.
“Damned you,” Pwn spat at me, scrambling backward away from me, finally unleashing a torrent of that black fire when I got t
oo close. “Do you even care about the damage you’ve done to me? Do you even realize?”
“You’re a murderer Pwn. You kill weak players to boost your kill count. You kill citizens because you think they are just programs,” I lectured him, adding a stack of ‘Lesser Holy Fire’ followed by ‘Lesser Holy Shock’ stunning as he was about to unleash another spell. I struck hard with ‘Justice Strike’, knocking his HP under 50%.
“So what? Players respawn, the programs are just that, programs. Are you really that delusional?” Pwn shouted at me once the stun faded.
“Yeah, they are programs to you and me. But to them, they are alive. They don’t respawn as players do. When they die, they are gone forever. They may not be alive as you and me, but they are a form of life,” I shouted right back at him. I equipped my ‘Phalanx Shield’ and smacked him with ‘Shield Slam’ interrupting whatever spell he was about to cast and managing a stun. I didn’t waste the opportunity. I was able to cast ‘Holy Smite’ twice before the stun faded, then I hit him with ‘Lesser Holy Shock’ stunning him again. I hit him with everything I could.
“I will be back. I will haunt you. You know that town you started in? I will burn it down. The town you defend now, I’ll burn that down too,” Pwn threatened as his HP continued dropping. “You can’t protect them both forever.”
“You don’t know do you?” I asked.
“Know what?” Pwn asked, standing tall in one final act of defiance.
“I gave my spell to the World Tree. Pretty soon, every town will have that spell,” I replied, letting my spear finish Pwn off, enjoying the wide-eyed look of fear on his face at the news ‘Justice Bringer’ would be in every town before too long.
I breathed a sigh of relief as explosions suddenly sounded all around me, one of them landing close enough to send me end over end and nearly killing me.
Realizing I was still alive but still very much in peril if I stayed too long, I started casting ‘Lesser Heal’, trying to bring my HP up to at least 50%. I didn’t remain a minute longer than I needed to and there was still fighting going on around me.
The Mountain Valley War Page 28
