Mid-range damage dealers and melee damage dealers weren’t far behind.
Not to be outdone, I leaped into the air, unhindered by the spells. I used my ‘Zephyr of the Open Field’ to get a good amount of height then shot back down. I stabbed into the head of one of the undead Rose was tanking. Between the fall damage transfer and the natural holy damage my ‘Holy Lance’ caused, that particular undead didn’t really stand a chance. I dealt -8,423-HP damage, killing it in one attack. Grinning, I immediately leaped again.
Within minutes, the undead were dead again and two more Flatland Citizens were freed. And best of all, the friendly fire damage had been kept to a minimum. Only Basher Slasher nearly died when he took a step too far and put himself between the casters and the last undead Heavy was tanking. Olaf made sure to point out to the melee that there were only six of us and that we didn’t all need to be attacking the same target, not when death by friendly fire was a real risk. Message received.
“That should be just about it for the undead in the camp,” Olaf started. “However, we’re still going to do a tent-by-tent search. Break into your assigned groups and get to searching. Oh, and I really shouldn’t need to mention this, but we’re not here to loot the Camp of everything not nailed down. That’s what the tower is for, so save your inventory space.”
I sighed at that. Not that I was disappointed but because I knew that wouldn’t stop some of the players. We’re generally a greedy bunch and loot was loot.
And speaking of loot, Pwn asked the question, “What about the loot from the lich servants? Was there any?”
“More Necrodust,” Olaf said. “Sorry, Pwn.”
Pwn sighed. “Lame.”
“Let’s move out,” Olaf ordered, motioning toward the small tent city.
However, before we could move out, Trinico stepped up. “Olaf, that Necrodust, I can use that to help find the Phylactery. The concentration of Undead Plague in it is . . . well, frankly impressive and disturbing.”
I guessed it was related to the quest:
Quest Alert: Tracing the Undead Taint (Recommended Level 25-30)
Priestess Trinico has asked you to help her trace the undead back to the source. To do this, she has requested you acquire small fragments of the undead from a wide variety of them.
Reward: Experience, Hidden (dependent on fragments collected), Source of the Undead Plague
That word ‘Hidden’ made the hairs on the back of my neck stand at attention. Usually, the Hidden rewards were really quite good. We’d received titles and trophies in the past. And let me tell you, trophies and titles were worth putting in extra effort.
Olaf smiled and happily handed over the materials.
“Thank you,” Trinico said. “This will help greatly.”
“Happy to help,” Olaf said, then addressing the group, he said again, “Let’s move out!”
Our group grew by three with the addition of Fiery, Icy, and Rodger, not to mention Baby. As one of the larger groups, Olaf decided we would clear out the large tent cabins. According to Mack, one was the general store, and the other was what served as an inn but was really just a bunk house.
The general store was a mess. The shelves had been knocked over and broken. There didn’t appear to be any goods remaining either, most likely looted either by brave players or by members of the cult of Xan.
Besides the destruction, there were three listless undead flatlanders. We made short work of them.
“Heath, see if you can find any hidden stashes. Everyone else, see if there is anything to salvage,” Olaf ordered, nudging aside some of the debris with his foot.
I joined in the search but didn’t hold out much hope. The large, tented cabin was a single large room about 50-feet across by 20-feet deep. Four wooden walls and a canvas roof with several tears as tented overhead. Trash and debris covered the floors mixed in with a bit of wood shelving that had been destroyed by the undead. It didn’t even have a backroom or storage room to speak of.
“Trap door,” Heath called out.
And so, I was wrong. An underground storage made sense to me.
“It’s locked up tight,” Heath said, as we got closer. “I think they nailed it shut from the other side.”
“Rodger, fly and get Mack and the other camp residents for me,” Olaf said, then he looked to Fiery, “Fiery, can you go find Fitz Bangs for me?”
“Yeah, sure,” Fiery said, flying just behind Rodger out of the shop.
“You want to blow the door?” Micaela asked.
“Only if we need to,” Olaf said. “I’m hoping Mack can help. If it was nailed shut from the other side, that suggests survivors. Unfortunately, they could have been down there for a while and might have died or be dying of starvation or dehydration. If that’s the case, they either can’t open the door or they are just too weak to. Unless Mack knows something, blowing the door might be our only choice.”
“I don’t see any traps,” I volunteer.
Heath confirmed the same, “No traps that I can see. I don’t see any kind of release lever either.”
Rodger returned first with Sergeant Butters and all the rescued flatlanders.
“What’s this about a trap door?” Mack asked, pushing his way to the front.
Heath showed him the door.
“Ha, I knew it. I just knew that old sneak Higgly was smuggling,” Mack crowed, then he stomped on the door a few times. “You hear that Higgly? I am on to you now!”
There was a weak moan from under the door making Mack jump back.
“Hmm, I cannot tell if that was Undead or almost dead,” Mack said, rubbing his chin. “Well, nothing for it. Break it open and let us see just what Higgly was hiding.”
A few minutes later, Fiery returned with Fitz.
“You rang?” Fitz squeaked excitedly, then with a manic grin he asked, “I hear you have a door you need opened?”
“Yeah,” Olaf said. “Seems to be nailed shut from below.”
Fitz rushed forward and dropped to his hands and knees, crawling along the seam of the door. At some point he equipped what looked like a jeweler loupe over one eye. “Seventeen nails, I can deal with this,” he said, fishing in his hip pouch and producing a long fuse and ball of orange claylike substance.
“Is that C-4?” Micaela asked, peering closer to get a better look.
“Basically,” Fitz replied. “It’s called Bang Clay in the World Tree. It should be enough to break through iron nails. If not, I can break out the Boom Clay . . . erm, same thing just stronger.” Fitz then laid the fuse into the seam of the door and put a small ball of the Bang Clay in seventeen different spots. “Alright, stand back everyone,” he warned as he lit the fuse and took a few steps back himself.
A series of small pops went off a moment later that filled the area around the door with smoke, making most of us start coughing through the acrid smell that came with it.
When the smoke cleared there were seventeen small divots in the floor surrounding the trap door.
“Rose, want the honors?” Olaf offered.
With a small laugh, Rose took a step toward the door, “Sure, why not.” At the edge of the door, Rose stomped forward hard and pulled back. With a sudden bang and crash, the door fell into the hole and clattered into pieces. She took a few steps forward and down into the hidden room. Soon she was out of sight.
I tightened my grip on my spear in anticipation of what she might run into down there.
“Baby, stay with her,” Olaf ordered, cocking his hand-cannons in preparation for the worst.
Baby fluttered forward, the tip of her wand glowing brightly and casting light down into the hole.
“Clear,” Rose yelled up a minute later, then added, “Get more healers and food and water. We’ve got survivors.”
Olaf and Micaela quickly started barking orders and moving the players around to get things done.
We later learned the Higgly had managed to save himself and five other camp residents by hiding in his storage room.
It was much to Mack’s disappointment that Higgly was not in fact smuggling. Anyway, they survived on the foodstuffs that Higgly stored down there until it eventually ran out. According to Baby, the starving and dehydration debuffs would have killed them in another two days if we hadn’t arrived when we did.
The most important thing, with the rescue of the additional citizens, the Flatlands Camp was returned to near functionality, which meant we now had a fully functional base of operations. The only thing that was lacking were guards. They all died trying to fight off the undead and then were turned themselves, same for the hunters of the Hunter’s Union which ran the camp. So despite being members of the Hunter’s Union, the shopkeeper, leatherworker, innkeeper, and other mundane workers, they wouldn’t be of any help protecting the camp. That left keeping the camp safe to Sergeant Butters, Mack, Trinico, and the three alternate damage dealers. I worried it wouldn’t be enough. Still, with the ‘Inn’ functional again, we wouldn’t be sleeping in our own tents for the night unless we wanted to.
“Gather around, everyone,” Olaf yelled, gathering everyone up. “We’ve got a basecamp. It’s still at risk but it’s better than nothing. That said, it takes about an hour to get from here to the tower and the sun has already started to set. I think it best we call it a day. Fitz and Duncan, you’re with me. We need to set a perimeter and there is a lot of ground to cover. Everyone else, check in with Sergeant Butters for guard duty rotation. Other than taking your turn on guard duty, I expect everyone to get a good rest. We’re moving on that tower before sunrise tomorrow.”
Rose and I decided to set up our tent and use it. It gave us a little privacy and made sure the other players had room in the inn.
“I thought we’d be further along,” Rose complained, shedding her armor before flopping into one of the chairs in our ‘living room’
I nodded. “There were a lot more undead than we expected. I think tomorrow will go faster. I just hope it doesn’t take us too long to secure the base of the tower.”
“I don’t think it can be too much worse than today,” Rose said. “The Camp was taken rather easily.”
I hoped she was right. I also knew that the tower was what really mattered. If it were me, I would put as many of my forces as I could afford at the bottom of that tower and slow any pursuers for as long as I could. “Tomorrow will tell,” I said.
Rose nodded. “I’m going to use ‘Meditation’ on my new skills for a few hours. Are you good?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “I’m going to read these Draconic books. Maybe I’ll learn something useful. If nothing else, I’ll get my Intellect and Wisdom stats up.” I set my title to ‘Child of Issara’ and cracked open the book. Time to see what this world had to say about dragons.
Chapter 30
“I hate being right,” I grumbled, as I ducked below the rocky outcropping. We chose it to observe the enemies from a relatively safe distance.
“How many is that? Two, three hundred?” Rose asked as she also ducked back down and leaned her back against the rocks.
“One hundred twenty-one,” Eagle answered helpfully. “Looks like it’s mostly Kobolds, and Drakes along with one mother of a boss.”
I peaked over the rocks again, trying to see the boss he was talking about. At the back of the veritable army stood a drake twice the size of the others and just as undead. It was too far to see the nameplate but that didn’t really matter. I knew all I needed to know. If we wanted to get inside that mountain tower, we needed to fight through a small army of undead and then kill a dragon.
“Waves?” Micaela asked, not bothering to duck back down before she spoke.
“If it isn’t, we’re in real trouble,” Olaf said. Like his wife, he didn’t bother ducking down, instead choosing to watch the undead horde. After a moment he surprised me when he said, “They have a pattern. We can control the pulls if they don’t come in waves.”
At the same time, Rose and I poked our head up to look and asked, “Where?”
Olaf grinned. “Oh, yeah,” he said, then looking back at the assembled players he called, “Elara,” waving for the Elven girl to join us.
The girl looked surprised to have been called on, but then quickly ran to join us.
“Alright, I need your skills. You have ‘Longshot’, yeah?” Olaf asked.
Elara nodded and answered nervously “But I can only use it once a day. And it’s only 100-yards range. And I don’t know if I can kill any of those with one shot.”
“I don’t want you to kill them. I want you to pull them,” Olaf said, then elaborated. “Come look. They have a pattern. I know it looks random, but it isn’t. Watch, here they come,” he said, pointing as a group of at least 20 undead separated slightly from the large mass. “Did you see it?”
Elara nodded. She stuttered to ask, “How long between groups?”
“About two minutes,” Olaf answered.
Elara nodded again, then paused. “But I can only pull one group with my ‘Longshot’ skill.”
“I know that,” Olaf said. “But I also know Duncan and Eagle have the skill as well. But you run faster and you’re less likely to aggro all of them at once, therefore you get the first shot,” he finished with a grin.
Elara swallowed nervously. “Alright, tell me when to go.”
Olaf nodded then looked down the rise to the assembled players. “Alright kiddies, we’ve got a group of at least 20 coming in shortly. All Kobolds and Drakes. Range damage dealers, I want you lot to focus on any Kobold spellcasters and archers first. Tanks, you’ve got the drakes and any Kobold warrior types. I don’t want to see more than one Drake per tank unless there is no other choice, in which case, Rose will be taking the second Drake, understood?”
Rose, Rock, and Heavy all nodded.
“Now, get spread out and watch your lines of fire. I don’t want any friendly fire deaths,” Olaf ordered. “Elara, it’s on you.”
The nervous Elf girl nodded and quickly ran off.
I moved to join the rest of the melee damage dealers and wait for the mini horde.
I didn’t hear the twang of the bow this time, just a loud, rage filled screech from one of the drakes followed by Elara running past a few seconds later.
“Two drakes, nineteen Kobolds,” Rose warned, preparing to grab aggro on at least one of the drakes and as many Kobolds as she could.
The drakes were each larger than a horse and looked similar to the drakelings we’d fought previous. Unlike their small predecessors, these drakes couldn’t fly. They still had wings, but they were small and undeveloped. It was more like the wings hadn’t grown into the bodies yet. More importantly, it meant they were earthbound. I guessed it was an age thing, where the Drakelings grew into drakes and eventually into dragons, but who knew how many stages there were before that happened. Also unlike the drakelings, the drakes had a proper breath attack instead of just spitting out a ball of death. And finally, due to their size, they hit hard.
Rose took the impact of the first drake ramming into her Shield-Wall and slid back a few feet. She immediately shifted forward and struck with one shield then the other. She followed up by quickly hitting a pair of melee type Kobolds trying to sneak past her. With three of the monsters on her she began moving them into position.
Rock focused on picking up as many of the Kobolds as he could. A task made easier by whatever ability it was that consecrated the ground around him. That left Heavy to pick up the last drake and another Kobold. Seven of the Kobolds stayed back, shooting arrows or casting spells.
All too soon, the air was filled with magic spells flying back and forth from our spellcasters to theirs.
“Rock first, that’s way too many Kobolds,” Olaf bellowed. Of the twenty-one monsters, there were two drakes and seven Kobold spellcasters, leaving twelve melee fighting Kobolds and Rock was tanking nine of them.
I leaped in, striking an
it off and hitting three more that were lined up just perfectly for -1,854-HP. Even hitting four targets for a net of -7,492-HP damage plus the 30-second cooldown meant my damage was too low and slow. A single leaping attack could be completed roughly every 10-seconds. I was still trying to figure out what my best attack pattern would be. I attacked one of the stunned Kobolds and dealt -1,043-HP damage. I could do a regular attack every 1.80-seconds. In ten seconds I could attack almost six times for about -6,000-HP damage, give or take a few hundred. Mixing in my new ‘Holy Lance’ Subskills, I could probably increase that damage to around -8,000-HP damage.
I leaped again. This time when I came down, I activated my ‘Arctic Lance’, hitting five of the Kobolds Rock was tanking. When I saw each of them take -9,765-HP damage and receive a slowing effect, I had a better idea of how I should be attacking going forward. Grinning excitedly, I leaped again.
An hour later, all that stood between us and the tower was the boss,
“Well done getting this far everyone,” Olaf started. “Now comes the real test. I’m hoping this big blighter is just like the regular drakes, but let’s be honest, I’m just not that lucky. So, let’s be patient. Rose, Rock, and Heavy, be aware of any debuffs as they present themselves and be ready to switch out as needed. At the same time, keep an eye out for it spawning mobs. Okay, damage dealers, start slow. I want to make absolutely certain our tanks have aggro before you go full hog. Healers, you have your healing assignments. Duncan will call out any changes if he needs them. Any questions?”
“Is dragon edible?” Rock asked, grinning from ear to ear.
Olaf matched the grin and replied, “You’re welcome to try it, but I get the impression undead flesh won’t be very tasty.”
World Tree Online: The Order of Epic Grinders: 4th Dive Page 51
