Combat Assessment as a skill wouldn’t work, but I’d seen something in the Pursuit Sphere previously that could make the search a whole lot easier. I’d filed it away for later because I hadn’t had enough points to unlock it, and because I hadn’t anticipated ever being in a party with more than one other player.
“Wait a second. I might have an idea.” I pulled up the Combat Assessment Pursuit Sphere and scanned the first tier of skills, most of which had already been unlocked: Basic Combat Assessment, Leveled Combat Assessment, and Weak Spot. Only one more skill was left: Party Planner.
Party Planning — In the heat of combat, it’s just as important to know what your friends are doing as well as your foes. Party Planning allows the user to mitigate area-of-effect damage (friendly fire) to the other members of their group. Outside of battle, Party Planning doubles as a passive skill that tracks the general location of party members within a one-mile radius, but no closer than three hundred feet. Must be party lead to activate. Requires 5 Skill Points.
“Hell yes,” I said, pulling up my list of Pursuit Skill Points. Party Planning required five Combat Assessment Skill Points, and that was exactly how many I had. Without a second thought, I allocated them all to unlocking the skill.
You have learned Party Planning!
I activated it at once. A black bar with an exclamation point in the middle appeared on the top of my display. At the bottom of the exclamation point was an arrow pointing downward. I spun around slowly.
“What’re you doing?” Brandon said.
I explained the skill to Brandon while giving it a test run. As I twisted around, the exclamation point moved to the left, and then the arrow disappeared as I continued turning. In the distance, I could see a gray translucent exclamation point that matched up vertically with the one at the top of my HUD along the bar.
I couldn’t tell how far she was, but if I was reading the compass correctly, Leesha was still back behind us.
“Got her,” I said.
“You lead the way, bro.” Brandon cracked his knuckles. “I’ll provide the muscle.”
54
The Rescue
It took a bit longer than I’d planned to find where the Full Metal Druids were keeping Leesha. Mostly, it had to do with the streets of Crystal Fen, which seemed as though they were contractually required to have a minimum amount of foot traffic. It was more than a little irritating, and when I suggested to Brandon that he carry me on his staff-broom thingy, he insisted I was too heavy.
“Way to fat shame,” I said.
“I only speak truth,” he said, hovering along so that we were the same height.
With Frank still safely — I hoped — stabled with the Sevenday Trading Company, I stuck with walking. Eventually, we ended up on the outskirts of town, and the crowds thinned out. The direction made me a little nervous. I knew Leesha was within a mile radius, but also wondered if the Full Metal Druids were leaving the area and taking their captive with them. Free of the hustle and bustle of Crystal Fen, we picked up the pace. The southwestern end of Crystal Fen bordered a small forest — I hoped the Sylvads were planning on camping there for the night.
Brandon volunteered to scout ahead and soon zoomed off into the evening on his staff. When he returned just a few minutes later, I knew he either had really good or really bad news.
“The trees are too thick to fly through or to see down into if I’m above,” he said. Resigned to searching on foot, we entered the forest. We’d only gone a couple of hundred yards into the trees when the translucent marker disappeared on my HUD.
“It’s gone,” I said.
“What?”
“Leesha’s marker. It’s gone.” A quick check told me she wasn’t dead. That meant we were within the three-hundred-foot distance where the marker lost its effectiveness. A moment later, the faint sound of laughter carried over a hill toward us. It wasn’t incredibly close, but it was close enough to where I’d have to be careful, especially given all of the crunchy fallen leaves beginning to litter the ground.
“What’s the plan?” I said to my sibling, who lazily hovered alongside me. “If they kill her, I’m still not sure if she’ll respawn all the way back in the Horuk outpost or not. We didn’t get the chance to set our spawn point in —”
“My dear brother,” Brandon said, floating on an air of superiority as well as his staff. “Have you already forgotten just how overpowered I am compared to these noobs? Just get ready to bolt toward them once I give you the signal. Find Leesha, grab her, and head out.”
Brandon had a point: I was overthinking this. With the magic abilities and attributes he had under his belt, there was no way any of the Full Metal Druids stood a chance.
With a quick salute, Brandon floated up through the trees and out of sight.
Doing my best imitation of a stealthy rogue — my best was pretty loud and awful — I sneaked up the hill on my hands and knees. That didn’t matter because I could see the group headed down a well-worn path, even in the fading light. The idiots carried spades, of all things, and lit torches, which was extra stupid when you took into account the Sylvad’s enhanced night vision.
I was able to make out a few of their mounts, one of which was a big camel-like creature with long pointed ears, like a rabbit carrying a large saddlebag over its hump. From what I could see, Leesha wasn’t tied to a mount or even being forced to walk along.
So where was she?
I had a nasty suspicion the shovels that the Full Metal Druids were carrying had something to do with it.
Since Brandon and I couldn’t party up, I had no way of messaging him to hold fire until I found Leesha. I realized this lapse in our plan just as a car-sized meteor blasted through the trees and struck the middle of the group with an explosion of green fire. The screams of upset animals and panicking players filled the calm forest evening. With no other plan in place, I drew my Bearded Axe of the Tundra and charged into the group. The Full Metal Druids were so preoccupied with Brandon that the female in the back didn’t even notice I was there until I’d buried my axe in the back of her head.
Backstab damage dealt!
Critical Hit!
Target Iris is stunned!
The Overpowering Blow knocked the Sylvad to the ground, stunning her in the process. With the rest of the group dodging fireballs and lightning while trying not to lose their mounts, there wasn’t anyone to come to this lady’s aid. Triggering my Flaming Weapon, I struck twice with the combined elemental damage of my frozen fire.
You defeat Iris.
One down.
A purple bolt of lightning and a concussive clap of thunder knocked a handful of the Full Metal Druids off their feet. I couldn’t help but smile, fondly remembering all the times I’d executed that same spell, Bolt of Fate, against other unsuspecting opponents. I shielded my eyes from the attack and, as soon as it was over, peered at the remaining Sylvad players, only to confirm my suspicions: Leesha wasn’t there.
It was then I saw the Full Metal Druid leader, Kren, swing into the saddle of a horse and gallop down the path.
“She’s getting away, Brandon!” I screamed as loud as I could. Without the party chat, I had no other way of talking to him.
Before I could see if Brandon was giving chase, an arrow whizzed past my head. I turned just in time for another to ding off the center of my helmet and almost knock me over backward. I stumbled and shook my pounding head. By the time my eyes could focus on anything, the last remaining Sylvad, the dude with green cornrows, was charging at me, war hammer held in both his hands.
I barely had time to bring up my axe to block his two-handed swing. The hammer missed me, but it was all I could do to hold on to my axe. This guy was only a level above me, but his strength dwarfed mine. I backed away as he swung again, just barely avoiding getting pulped. His war hammer must have had a minimum strength requirement, given the sheer force he had to muster with each attack. I made the mistake of trying to take it head-on, and an overhead swing
powered right through my axe parry, catching me on the shoulder. I spun around, feeling like I’d just tried to tackle a train. My health was now down to half, and the Sylvad still had a third of his left.
The war hammer came at me in an overhead arc again, but this time I knew better than to try to block it. Instead, I juked aside at the last instant, and the attack thudded into the ground with enough force I could feel it through my boots. The Sylvad gritted his teeth and shouted as he raised the weapon for another attack.
I didn’t give him the chance. The war hammer’s attacks were powerful, but they were slow. The Sylvad only had his weapon half raised when I barreled into him, sending us both crashing to the leaf-covered ground. I’d never specialized in unarmed combat, but it didn’t take a kung fu master to punch a guy in the face. I hit him once, twice, and then rolled away before he could punch back.
+1 Unarmed Combat Skill Point
The plan had never been to beat the Sylvad on the ground. I’d only wanted to render his war hammer immobile. While he struggled back to his feet and reached for his weapon, I retrieved my Bearded Axe of the Tundra. At my touch, the icy blue frost on the blade whooshed to life.
“Hey, dude.”
Jerking his head up, the Sylvad found me standing over him, axe raised.
“Night night.”
I swung my axe like a baseball bat, catching the dude with perfect precision in the neck. The astonished look on his face disappeared from sight as the head spun end over end into the trees and the body slumped to the ground.
You critically strike Razakra for 32 points of damage. You behead Razakra. You defeat Razakra.
It was pretty obvious Razakra wasn’t coming back from a beheading, but I appreciated the notifications in PvP that let me know someone was dead for sure. When fighting monsters and NPCs, sometimes you had to double-tap to make sure. And I definitely didn’t want any of the Full Metal Druids ambushing us before we could find Leesha and beat it back to Crystal Fen.
I sprinted down the path in the direction Kren had gone. Brandon was nowhere in sight, which I hoped meant he’d been able to catch up to her. I’d gone less than fifty yards before I saw an explosion through the trees ahead.
When I arrived, Brandon was divebombing Kren on his staff in a game of cat and mouse. It was obvious she couldn’t run away, nor was she any threat to Brandon, either. When he saw me approaching, Brandon pulled up and hovered just out of Kren’s reach.
“Ready to tell us where Leesha is?” I called out.
Upon hearing my voice, Kren whirled around. Gone was the cocky party leader from Crystal Fen. This lady knew she’d bitten off more than she could chew. I just hoped she was willing to cooperate. With the rest of her party dead, this was our last chance of finding out where in the three-hundred-foot radius from me Leesha was.
“You don’t know what she did!” Kren said. “Please stop! She screwed us over! We had plans to enter the tournament, and she ruined them!”
“Yeah, I get it,” I said. “She screwed you. She screwed me too.”
“Word choice, Z,” Brandon said.
“She’s honestly not that bad, though,” I said, ignoring my brother. “I know it sucks, but she’s…better now, okay? Yes, she can be difficult, but she didn’t really mean to hurt you guys.”
“But she did!” Kren said. “When she ran off, she literally yelled, ‘Your pain gives me strength!’”
Even I had to admit that Leesha wasn’t the easiest person to defend, especially given how awful she’d been when I first met her.
“Do you want to end up like the rest of your Sylvad crew?” Brandon added in.
“We don’t stand a chance of getting in the tournament now,” Kren said, a crestfallen expression on her face.
“We all want a shot at the tournament,” I said. “Now hurry up. You’ve already cost us more than you know.”
Kren glanced back at Brandon, as if checking her chances of escape one last time. “Okay,” she sighed. “Follow me.”
She started walking away, but Brandon stopped her by placing his staff in front of her. “No tricks. I’m the only one who does tricks.”
Kren nodded. “No tricks.”
The leader of the Full Metal Druids led us back down the path, cringing as she passed the spot where the last of her party members were fading away to respawn. Apparently, they’d either ditched her or decided respawning back at Crystal Fen — assuming that was where it was — was better than coming back to life in the middle of the forest with a level twenty-one player waiting to kill them again.
We continued past the scene of the fight. Kren veered off the path into the trees. I double-checked my Party Planning skill, but it was still blank, meaning Leesha was somewhere within range. At last, we came to what looked like a cairn — a pile of rocks on top of freshly dug dirt.
“Under there,” Kren said with a jerk of her head. “We buried her alive so she’d have to do a non-death respawn and take the one-day, real-world-time penalty.”
I sighed. I’d been right about the shovels. “You’re going to help me dig her up while Brandon keeps an eye on you.”
“Don’t worry about that.” Brandon stepped forward and waved his staff around, sending the rocks flying off through the trees. With the cairn gone, he cast another spell that blasted the layer of soft dirt away.
I walked to the edge of the hole and laughed.
“What is it?” Brandon asked as he finally lowered himself to the ground. “Is she in there?”
“She was worried about getting locked in a trunk, and that’s exactly what they did.” I knelt down and tapped on the lid. “Leesha, you in there?”
A muffled, unintelligible response came from inside the trunk. Without wasting another second, I hefted my axe and smashed the lid to pieces with the top of it so I didn’t accidentally behead Leesha. After a few hits, the lid was in splinters and Leesha’s arms pushed through. I reached down and rather unceremoniously pulled her from the grave-like prison. She was halfway out of the hole when her other hand swung at me, landing right on the nose.
Debuff Added — Broken Nose. You have received a broken nose — while it should heal just fine, your sight and perception are limited for 30 seconds.
“Ow, what the hell?” I reached for my broken nose, dropping Leesha back in the hole in the process.
“Z!” Leesha said, her eyes wide in shock.
“Who dith you thick it wath?” I held my nose with my hand as blood ran through my fingers.
“The Sylvads, dummy!” She caught the sight of something over my shoulder and threw a stone over my shoulder. “Look out!”
“Ow!” I heard Brandon yell behind me. “Z, your girlfriend is a real jerk.”
I stepped between them and held up a hand. I waited another moment until the Broken Nose debuff faded, then glared at Leesha.
“It’s okay. He’s on our side!”
Her lips tensed and she glared back at me like it was my fault. “You have to tell me these things, dude.”
Before I could figure out a response to that, she wrapped her arms around me in a surprisingly fierce hug. “You came back for me!”
Surprised, it took me a second to return the embrace. I was glad Brandon was still behind me — I could only imagine the smug look on his face. “Well, duh. I can’t exactly get into Mythgard without you.”
Leesha looked back in the hole at the remnants of the trunk and shuddered. “That was the worst. I just sat there, trying not to hyperventilate — I’m not even claustrophobic and it sucked — anyway, I didn’t know if I should log out and take the self-respawn penalty or — where’s Kren? I’m going to cut her!”
I spun around, remembering the Full Metal Druid leader. Brandon shrugged. “I let her run off when the trunk started yelling. I figured we had the right person.”
Leesha’s eyes narrowed at Brandon. “And who is this?”
“Well, funny story,” I said. “You remember that sick brother of mine?”
“Th
is guy? I thought he was too sick to play.”
I eyed Brandon. “He is.”
“I think I can judge for myself what I’m too sick or well enough for, thank you very much.” Brandon held out a hand to Leesha. “Brandon Cunningham.”
Leesha shook his hand. “Wait a second,” Leesha said, a realization hitting her. “Dart! You’ve got to tell me what happened.”
I explained how we’d failed the quest, leaving out the part where I’d cried like a baby and beat up a shed with my bare fists.
“Fortunately, Brandon here has been doing some recon for us,” I said, nodding to my brother. “Otherwise, we’d be totally screwed. Not that we aren’t pretty screwed already, but there’s a slim chance we can still catch that jerk.”
Leesha folded her arms. “You should have caught him first, then came for me.”
I raised my eyebrow at her, and she rolled her eyes.
“Fine.” She smiled in spite of herself. “I’m glad you came for me. Thank you. Listen good, ’cause I won’t say it again, but thank you. Really.”
I grinned. “What good what you have been to me if you were locked in that trunk? We’ve got a deal! You’ve still got to get me a token and into Mythgard.”
“But first things first,” Brandon cut in. “We still have to get you that token or nothing else matters. But you’re in luck, because now you have me.”
“You have a plan, then?” Leesha said, her voice sounding hopeful.
“Unlike my brother, I always have a plan,” Brandon said, swinging back onto his floating staff. “First things first, we’re going to have to have a chat with your friends at the Lucas Sevenday Trading Company.”
55
God Mode: A LitRPG Adventure (Mythrune Online Book 1) Page 35
