Escape from Darom, page 40
Warning: The caster does not have a feat, skill, or magic device that allows for the raising of “Large” or greater sized monsters. Continuing at this time will result in the caster not being able to control their undead pet. This could result in the caster being immediately attacked. Are you sure you want to continue? Yes/No
For a moment, I just stared at the message trying to understand exactly everything it was saying. The most important part being that if I tried raising a “large” sized monster without the correct feat, skill, or magic device, it’ll try to eat my face off. At least, that’s what the message was strongly hinting at. On the flip side, if I had the correct feat, skill, or magic device, it would be possible to have thirteen Venomous Rock Scorpions as pets. I was still trying to get my head around that, when my friends started bitching in raid chat.
“What the hell, Jay?” Jill angrily complained, “I’m getting an error message when I try to raise one of these Venomous Rock Scorpions!”
“Me too,” Sarka said, frowning in annoyance.
“It probably means we shouldn’t be trying to raise them,” AJ said unperturbed.
“Damn, that sucks,” Thompson unhappily said, “I guess that means we’re raising Orcs?
“Looks that way,” I agreed, shoving the insect soul stones back in my bag.
“Why’s that,” Hefe said as his hands continued going through the motions for the Raise Zombie spell, “I just hit yes and the spell started casting.”
“Hefe!” Krystal and Jill both chorused.
“Dude, stop that!” AJ snapped, smacking the soul stone out of Hefe’s hands.
“What the hell man?” Hefe heatedly asked, bending down to snag the soul stone off the ground.
“What part of the error message did you not understand?” AJ demanded as the Gnome gave him a hurt look, “Just stay with raising Orcs for now-”
“But Thompson and Jill said the insect Ghouls were-”
“Hefe!” all of us yelled making him jump as he grudgingly decided that maybe it was best if he swapped out the soul stone like we’d said.
“Krishna,” I called while casting Raise Ghoul with Helgath on sixteen Orc soul stones as everyone else in the raid did the same, “Have your Wardens help us hold the PKers in the streets with your attack spells, but once they break into the plaza in mass, switch to healing and pull back to the pier as far as you can.”
“Hell,” Thomas thoughtfully said, “you could probably cast from the deck of the Wind Dancer.”
“Good call,” I said while trying to keep my focus on the long cast.
“In mass?” Krishna asked, looking around in confusion at the term.
“When they start charging across the plaza,” AJ explained.
“And blasting the fuck out of us,” Jill helpfully added.
“Wonderful,” Krishna gulped, trading nervous looks with a few of his guildmates.
I didn’t blame them one bit for being nervous as to what we were about to face. The sight of the massed horde of players rushing down the three streets towards us was downright intimidating. In truth, we’d lucked out up until now. So far, we’d managed to catch them by surprise and ambush them in separate groups with tactics that they weren’t familiar with. Not to mention, the heavy dose of cheese we dished out on them in the graveyards with Töten’s help.
Unfortunately, after the last half-hour of trying to respawn in while the Dragoons sniped the hell out of them at range, they now had a much better understanding of the capabilities of our Dark Lance spell and how to negate it. On top of that, they were royally pissed at being played like a bunch of noobs. And if that wasn’t enough to get them worked up into a frenzy, they could clearly see that we were about to get away free and clear. There was no question in any of our minds that these PKers were going to be out for blood.
All around us, the ground erupted as Orc Ghouls and Zombies began rising up around us. With a thought, I sent my undead pets loping to the far side of the plaza as the rest of the raid did the same. In total, we had a little over three hundred undead for a surprise force, I silently thought as I began preparing my special batch of soul stones for what was to come. As Helgath came up beside me on Neysa’s back to grip my bicep, Phoenix nonchalantly sidled up next to me with Neristhana on my other side.
“Dragoons, first rank, kneel!” General Dell’s voice rang out around us as we watched the players approaching the end of the streets.
“You still planning on doing what we were talking about?” Phoenix asked in a low voice as everyone raised their arm to fire off their spells.
“I’m hoping it’s not going to be needed,” I whispered back, “but honestly, I don’t see much of a way around it.” I shrugged unhappily at the Barbarian. “We’ll know soon enough.”
“I hear you,” Phoenix grunted in understanding as a frown crossed her red lips, “When do you want us to fall back to the Wind Dancer?”
“Plan on doing it when the Wardens fall back,” I said as she quietly gave me a two-finger salute.
“Star?” Neristhana nervously asked, looking back and forth between the two of us.
“No matter what happens to me,” I said, trying to reassure the Gnomeling and failing miserably, “just keep to the plan and everything will work out fine.”
“Yes, milord,” Neristhana replied, before falling back with the Barbarian to the front of the pier where the Wardens were clumped about.
“All Dragoons, volley Dark Lance, fire!” General Dell’s voice suddenly barked as two-hundred Dark Lances shot out from the double rank of Dragoons.
The purplish-black spikes of Dark magic whooshed through the air to slam into the front rank of the packed mass of players in the blink of an eye. Though the plaza was eighty-yards-wide, it still left us a swath of twenty-yards of maximum effective range for the glowing waves to strike. Not only that, with the stacked attacks coming from seventy, sixty, and seventy Dragoons respectively, I saw front ranks of players on each street diving for the ground after just the second round of volleys.
That didn’t mean we’d killed any of them, I realized, as the next batch of players behind them kept running. As they pushed forward into the wall of oncoming Dark Lances, I saw them do the same thing as the first batch of players. They were learning quicker than I’d have liked.
“General Dell,” I called out in the raid’s command chat, “just use individual rows to fire. They’re adapting too quickly. At least, this way we might be able to make them dodge a little more.”
“Yes, milord,” General Dell grunted as he began altering the Dragoons volleys.
“We’ve got this,” Krishna suddenly said, catching me by surprise. As the words left his mouth, all thirty-eight Wardens opened up with Guided Bolts of Zap.
The brilliant flaring balls of Nature magic were more eye catching than damage dealing. They only cost a hundred mana to cast so you could basically blast them out unendingly if you had a high Spirit Attribute like me. Also, like my Dark Lances, they had a range of a hundred yards which was nearly double that of most magic trees.
On top of that, the Guided Bolts of Zap had an amazing psychological effect as they came homing in on the target no matter what they did to dodge or hide. I saw numerous players trying to leap away from the glowing balls at the last moment before impact. The panicked looks on their faces as the bolts curved around in midair to strike them in the face was priceless. Whole groups of players began taking their chances with the Dark Lances flying down the street rather than be targeted by the glowing balls.
Even so, it was like a sandcastle trying to hold back the tide as the Chaos Storm Alliance players pressed on in the face of everything that we threw at them. All I could do was keep an eye on my HUD as I counted down the minutes. Just nine more minutes and I’d send my friends racing down the pier for the Wind Dancer.
“They’re spreading out in the plaza!” Sarka’s alarmed shout rang out in raid chat.
Instantly, the Wardens switched their fire to target the PKers as they began spreading out to get away from the incoming Dark Lances targeting the streets. I was surprised at the number of players that started dropping like rocks. They’d obviously been a part of the initial group that had taken the severe beating with all the Dragoons volleying. That started to change quickly enough though. As I saw more and more players shrugging off the incoming blasts, I knew it was time.
“Send in the undead!’ I shouted in raid chat. “Wardens fall back now!”
It was going to be close, I knew, watching the mass of players charging across the plaza trying to get within sixty yards so they could start hammering us with their own spells. As the players closed to within seventy yards, Zombies and Ghouls began leaping up from the corpses spread across the ground and tackling the players as they ran past. As terrified screams of horror began ringing out across the plaza, Helgath and I began laying down a swath of Magnify Damage spells as the rest of the raid opened up with their Enhanced Shadow Bolts.
Even as the PKers fell to our barrage, Lightning and Fire Blasts started rippling across our lines. The wave of damage hit us like a deluge, ripping away our shields and staggering my Advanced Start friends as the air around us crackled with electricity while the cobblestones beneath our feet began to burn. If not for the constant waves of cool healing washing over us, we would’ve died right then and there.
Staggering backwards from the intensity of the barrage, I managed to pull out the handful of boss soul stones that I’d been setting to the side ever since my first week in The World. As my friends held the line the best they could, I pulled Helgath into my arms as we focused on the fist-full of soul stones in my hands.
I can’t even begin to explain how horrible the agony was as we huddled together trying to complete the one-minute cast. It was like the skin was constantly melting off my face as the barrage of incoming damage began to build. The constant heals coming from the Wardens couldn’t begin to keep up with it. If not for Thompson and Krystal spamming out Regeneration like mad, we’d have never gotten the cast off, when the cobblestones around us suddenly erupted with Ghouls.
In my arms, I felt Helgath tense up as soon as she saw her ex-slave master standing before us. Even though she knew the Elite War Leader was dead and under our command, a part of her cringed even now as the level 53 Wutgarek Bonecrusher bellowed to the sky. I didn’t blame her for feeling that way at all since seeing the Orc made my skin crawl too. With him were the rest of the major enemies that we’d faced in Auris Shaeras. Ghozuhs Riptide level 48 Sekolahian High Priest, Zyzix the Ravager level 53 Hammerhead Warrior, three Elite Sea Orc Warriors level 53, six Elite Sekolahian Priests level 45, two Elite Sea Orc Fire Mages level 50, an Elite Sea Orc Water Shaman level 48, and an Elite Sea Orc Air Shaman level 50.
Clanging his massive shield and two-handed Battle Axe together, the massive Orc Ghoul launched himself at the approaching group of players along with Hammerhead Sekolahian Warrior Ghoul and his trident at his side. They hit the front of the Chaos Storm Alliance charge like two bulls let loose in a China shop. As they tore into the stunned players, the three Elite Sea Orc Warrior Ghouls joined them.
Behind the group, the rest of the Ghoul casters went to work. Six Water Blade Tornados rose up in front of our lines, before shooting through the advancing PKers and shredding everything in their paths. While at their middle, the Elite High Priest Ghoul began blasting blade cones of water into the players faces. If that wasn’t bad enough, the Elite Sea Orc Shamans and Fire Mages joined in with their own destructive spells.
“Everyone back to the Wind Dancer!” I shouted in raid chat as the magic barrage assaulting on our lines suddenly stopped.
“What the hell are those things, Jay?” Jill asked, watching the monstrous Ghouls in complete awe with the rest of my LAN party friends.
“Shark people?” AJ exclaimed, “There’s Shark people in this game?”
“I told you about them when we were talking about our fight back in Auris Shaeras!” I exclaimed in annoyance.
“Uh, yeah, I must have tuned that part out,” AJ said with a shrug.
“I fucking hate you sometimes,” I irritably said.
“That’s just not right,” Hefe excitedly yelled, watching the Hammerhead Ghoul as it stabbed a player with its trident and lifted the man up to bite his head off.
“Sarka! Thomas!” I shouted to my raid mates, “Get them moving!”
“Krishna!” I barked out only to be cut off.
“We’re pulling back to the Wind Dancer!” Krishna snapped as he got his people moving.
“General Dell?” I shouted out next.
“Collecting the dead,” General Dell replied in a tight voice, “and then we’ll move out!”
Even with the powerful Boss Ghouls distracting the PKers, enough attacks were coming in that it was hard to focus. As the Dragoons volleys stopped, I saw the remainder of the Chaos Storm Alliance begin pouring into the plaza without heed. I hurriedly glanced at my HUD and saw that we were just past sixteen minutes. If Sub-Captain Windcoat had the timing right, we’d be able to load up just as the Wind Dancer was starting to pull away from the pier.
That unfortunately wasn’t going to work, I realized as everyone started falling back. The PKers would overrun the pier before we made it halfway to the ship. Snarling in frustration, I pulled out the handful of soul stones that I’d tucked away earlier as my Half-Orc’s yellow cat-eyes widened in alarm. Tasting my resolution over our link, she gave me a firm nod and linked our magics together as we began casting Raise Ghoul a second time, while Neysa took up a defensive position in front of us to protect our bodies from the incoming attacks.
I took in the chaotic flow of battle going on around us as the one-minute cast ticked down on the spell. The PKers were easily dividing their forces to deal with the Boss Ghouls. Breaking down into individual raids of forty or so players, they began working together to tank the mobs while other raids hammered them from range. Though the players were dying, with a base of eight thousand players to work from, they could handle the deaths and still press the attack. The only reason we weren’t already overrun was that it was taking time to get all of their forces deployed into the plaza. As the Ghoul Shamans and Mages started to go down, I heard my friends shout over the cacophony of battle.
“Dark Lances, volley fire!” General Dell bellowed as he led the Dragoons backwards down the pier trying to keep the PKers at bay.
“Sara, hit the left!” Jill cried out, dropping Walls of Flame as fast as she could across the Chaos Storm Alliance’s advance.
“I’ve got the Resurrect!” Yun cried out as Sarka and AJ shielded a scorched Thompson, while anyone who still had mana left blasted at the oncoming mass of players.
“Stop fighting and fall back to the Wind Dancer now!” Thomas ordered as bolts fired over our heads from the ship’s deck.
‘Fuck, this isn’t going to work,’ I mentally swore even as the mix of Giant Armored Toxicpedes, Razor Stink Beetles, Jagged Assassin Beetles, and Venomous Rock Scorpions began rising up from the cobblestones.
Even so, I watched the insectile Ghouls’ reaction as their awareness snapped into place. Before any of the undead monsters could focus on either Helgath, Neysa or me, a mass of Lightning and Fire Strikes blasted the entire area, drawing the undead monsters’ ire. Letting out an ungodly chittering shriek from hell, the sixteen insect Ghouls raced for the PKers ranks as I breathed a sigh of relief.
I hadn’t been completely sure if the Dark Blade of Lord Kayden’s special “Renders lesser undead creatures such as zombies, skeletons, spirits and etc. neutral and unable to attack first” would work or not on the Ghouls. That might sound like a crazy risk to take in our current dire straits, but I hadn’t done that because I’d particularly thought the undead insects would buy us all that much time. They were simply too low for that, I realized even as they leaped atop the nearest group of players to devastating effect. No, what was important was that my test had worked. The Ghouls seemed to focus their aggro on whoever attacked them first and not the persons that raised them.
Even so, I couldn’t help gulping as I drew out the soul stone from my pouch that I’d been saving for all this time. This was my ace in the hole that I’d thought was lost when I’d first read that error message on raising “Large” monsters. Taking a moment to gaze at the level 40 soul stone, I realized that I’d almost leveled up too much to make the monster worth using.
Still, over the last few days, I’d learned that size had a certain strength all its own. Not only that, it also meant the monster would be more dangerous to the Chaos Storm Alliance’s lower-levels than myself, I giddily thought, while drawing out the rest of my Boss Mob soul stones: aka the three Mortician Brothers from the city of Myathlune, Grutgrak Skullcrusher the Orc War Leader that led the Goblin Invasion of BrokenFang Hold, the two Sword Flayer Pirate mini-bosses that had taken over the Wind Dancer, the Troll Turok Kuroji that I’d run into in the mountains, the three bosses from the Delonshire Mine, and five random Elite Sea Orc Warriors.
Meeting Helgath’s stony gaze, she gave me a resolute nod as we began the Raise Ghoul spell. Instead of progressing like normal, an odd error message popped open before my eyes.
Warning: Raised Ghoul spell cannot be extended with different sized monsters, aka: Normal sized monsters must be raised with other normal sized monsters. Please remove the different types of monsters and try casting Raise Ghoul again.
Fuck, I mentally swore, returning the other Boss Mob soul stones to my bag. Meeting Helgath’s curious gaze, we tried again, this time getting the error message I’d expected.
Warning: The caster does not have a feat, skill, or magic device that allows for the raising of “Huge” or greater sized monsters. Continuing at this time will result in the caster not being able to control their undead pet. This could result in the caster being immediately attacked. Are you sure you want to continue? Yes/No
