Emerilia Box Set, page 110
part #1 of Emerilia Series
“Just what we need—giant fucking moles!” Suzy muttered darkly.
“Well, they could be cute if they weren’t trying to kill us,” Induca chimed in.
“Yeah, I don’t think we’re getting that option today,” Deia said. “We’ve got ten more creatures burrowing through the city to come and meet us.”
“Fixing this place is going to be a big pain in the ass.” Dave sighed.
“Nothing that was worth doing was ever easy,” Malsour said.
“Have you ever heard of a thing called fortune cookies?” Steve asked.
“No, why?”
“Was thinking you were their spokesman.” Steve shrugged.
“Anna, where did he get all of this information on Earth from?” Suzy asked.
“Well,” Anna scratched her head awkwardly, “he might have gotten it from me. We did have to share some information so that he could operate properly. I also gave him some information I had on Earth. I didn’t realize that he would use it this way.”
“Awww, thanks, Mom!” Steve said with the cheesiest grin, moving to hug Anna. He grabbed and hugged her against his massive chest.
“I wish I had added some more manners. He has his parental AI’s sense of humor and mannerisms.”
“Shard said the same thing when I asked him where my personality came from,” Steve said with a pleased smile, putting Anna down.
“Moles, coming, here, any minute now?” Deia said, spacing her words out, hoping to gain their attention.
“Woo-hoo! Mole stew!” Steve said.
“You don’t even eat,” Dave said as they moved with the other heavies toward the door in case the Mana barrier fell once again.
“It’s the premise, dude. Make the moles all scared that they’ll be nice tasty stew by the end of the day.”
“I doubt they can even understand us.” Dave shifted around in his armor, checking his shield and sword.
Steve shrugged and twirled his axe around in anticipation.
The mages, now with more time to set up, had laid traps. All manner of traps, from ice spike to magma ground, activated. The moles squealed and yelled in anger and pain.
The Stone Raiders had not been lax in even their quick defenses. Not one of the moles made it into the tower.
In a bare handful of minutes, a second wave of moles erupted from the ground.
The Stone Raiders now had an idea of what worked best against the moles; only two made it to the magical traps around the tower. The third wave of moles didn’t get within twenty meters of them.
“Welcome to the land of the Aleph!” Steve yelled out. The Stone Raiders shook their heads, a few chuckling as they eased up. Their defenses were in place and growing.
Shard had sent three behemoths with them, pulling carts with large soul gems on them. They’d been hooked into the tower, with Lucy guiding it all. Barricades rose from the ground, making lines and trenches for the defenders to hide behind. Runic traps and defenses came online. No Mana mole was going to be able to make it into the tower now.
“Okay, we dealt with the first lot. Party Zero and Seventeen, you’re the bait—go out and kite anything that might be a threat to us,” Josh said.
Deia led them out between the defenses and into the still unlit city.
“Well, let’s go find some trouble,” Steve said, looking jovial.
“Remind me to never bring you on a trip,” Dave muttered.
Steve gave him an over-the-top smile.
Dave shook his head, trying to hide his snort of laughter at Steve’s ridiculous expression.
“Dave, where are the nearest groups of monsters?” Deia asked.
“That way, about half a kilometer.” Dave pointed into the city.
“What’s the situation at the power plants?” Anna asked.
“Well, the nearest ones have some kind of creatures in them. There are three others that I can sense. Two others have creatures in them as well. Be good to get some power going up in here so that the automatons can deal with this,” Dave said.
“If we get a power station on right now, it will be like a beacon for any animal that can sense or use Mana. They’ll come at us with everything they have. Might mess up the power station more than when we first get to it,” Anna warned.
“We’ll keep to the plan,” Deia said. “Grind the mobs until they’re no more, then start putting systems online. I like it, not getting bit in the ass by some wandering mob, but damn if it isn’t going to take some time.”
Quest: Aleph Homecoming
You have arrived at an unknown Aleph City.
To return the city to the governing power of the Aleph, you must hold your position in the city for 20 waves.
Wave 1 begins in 5 mins
Wave: 1 of 20
Attackers: 200
Rewards: ???
“Josh is ordering us back. Seems that we’ve triggered a capture scenario,” Deia said.
“So, we just have to stay here and kill all of those that fight us and we get the city?” Dave asked.
“Correct,” Deia said. “It seems that Shard teleported us into the building that acts as the control point for the entire city. Killing the moles was showing that we wanted to take control of the city.”
“Well, better than wandering around out there to mess with things,” Dave said as they moved back behind the barricades that had appeared around the tower.
It looked like some kind of futuristic armored bunker with its sleek exterior and the different archers’ slits, until you looked at the spell casting platforms that were heavily shielded; the opaque glass allowed casters to see in all directions.
What the hell were the Aleph doing other than learning how teleportation pads work? This stuff is more advanced than any other race. One only needs to look at Shard to know that.
Dave kept his thoughts to himself as he sensed creatures moving toward their position, seconds before someone called out the creatures’ position.
“Group of draugr! Levels 130 to 149, seventeen of them!” the scout called out over the information chat. The information turned into text in the same chat.
“Finish them off before they can get into the tower’s defenses! They’ll just waste them!” Lucy called out.
“Ranged, to me!” Kim called.
“Fighters, to the front!” Dwayne barked.
“Come on, you furry arsed bastards—move out into the city. I want to know where our enemies are coming faster than this!” Josh said.
Parties fell apart, their components moving to the different leaders of the Stone Raiders, ready and waiting to be used. Josh’s people moved out into the city to scout and lay ambushes. Ranged moved into the upper floors, fighters to the lower as Dwayne ordered them to the four different doorways that entered the tower.
The doorways led downward to a central area where lifts and drop chutes waited, the heart of the tower. Balconies were connected to the elevators and chutes by bridges on four sides.
Dave rushed up the stairs to what was the northern entrance.
Barricades covered the main opening, with many more out in the area around the tower, creating fighting positions.
“Come on, you lot!” their leader said, taking them out into the open area around the tower.
They hid behind the barricades, ready and waiting.
“Plan is we use these barricades to take any ranged attacks that the enemy have. Once they get in nice and close, we drop the barricades and pound them with good old-fashioned metal. Call out if you need anything. Work in fighting pairs. Everyone have their Stamina potions on their action bar?” The winter tiger-looking Demi-Human was greeted by nods and assurances.
“Good. Now if any of you have a bow or something, go ahead and shoot at the things at range. Once they clear the ring of buildings around us, change to your melee. For you delinquents who don’t know me, my name is Anjold.” The Demi-Human looked around once more before he moved off to his position in the middle of the line.
Dave looked to Deia and Anna, who were to his left in the same cover. Steve was to his right.
Deia pulled out her bow as Dave combined his rods together into a bow. “First one to twenty gets treated to dinner?” Deia asked.
“Like hell I’m taking that bet!” Dave sighted the enemy. Already, they were getting hit on multiple sides by Josh’s people who would appear for a strike before darting away.
An artillery spell rushed out to meet the draugr, killing half of them instantly.
Josh’s people fell on them like vultures, taking out the rest with savage attacks that made use of their stunned status.
“We’ve got more draugr coming in from all directions. Keep your wits about you,” Josh said over the guild’s chat.
“Hey Dave, think you could make me something that could shoot farther?” Steve asked.
Dave looked at the man in a bit of confusion. “I thought that you liked to kill things up close and personal?”
“Well, I do, but when I’m just sitting here, it kind of sucks, you know? After seeing how you could kill people from hundreds of meters away, it might make sense if I have something to hit people at range with. Plus, it would look badass having a massive bow with arrows that could go through a dozen people,” Steve said.
“For a second, I thought you had a good argument for you to have a bow. Talk to Deia; she can train you with the thing,” Dave said.
“Never tried training,” Steve said, interested.
“Then, how do you know how to fight?” Dave asked.
“I had the guardians’ fighting styles uploaded into me, made me capable of fighting as soon as I could move.” Steve shrugged. “Shard wants me to see if I can improve on them so that the other guardians can learn from me and be better at dealing with the threats to the Aleph, so we don’t have a situation where we need outside help to clear out our cities. It might be worth spending time training. Right now, I am following preset commands, but it feels all rather mathematical. Using different amounts of force, changing my body’s positioning and so forth so that I can take a minimal amount of damage to kill my enemy.”
For the first time since Dave knew Steve, he looked genuinely curious.
Dave shrugged as he saw new Health bars running toward him.
The draugr were fighters who had their souls bound to their corpses and had been twisted with pain and anger, making them lash out at anything that was living. They wore moldy armor that had been eaten through by age and battles.
Dave watched the Health bars over their heads, as Deia let loose her arrow, striking one.
Dave followed suit, and the archers above started to hit the draugr. Spell casters added in their own firepower, magic slamming into the advancing undead.
Dave notched, drew and released, sending arrow after arrow at the approaching forces. They didn’t feel the pain, losing their dried-out limbs without flinching from the impact of weapons. Others were frozen in place, toppling and turning into shards. More were burnt to dust, or made to howl as lightning raced through their bodies.
Mana bolts, lances, and all manner of ranged attacks slammed into the draugr.
Magic artillery was kept back, keeping away from the heavy hitting attacks that they might need later.
Dave pulled back another arrow, looking for a new target but not finding one.
“Everyone good for arrows? How’s your Stamina looking?” Anjold asked, wandering through the lines.
Deia pulled out more arrows and put them in her pack.
“What about you—you need more arrows?” He looked to Dave.
“I’ll be fine,” Dave said.
“You don’t have any arrows, though.” Anjold frowned with a confused expression.
“I have some slightly different skills. I’ll be fine.” Dave smiled, trying to reassure the man.
“Okay,” Anjold said, a confused look on his face.
Dave didn’t want to tell him about his conjuring skill; it was best to keep that sort of thing a secret. Many people might just think that he had powerful two rods that made different weapons. Letting them make their own conclusions was for the best.
Dave rolled his shoulder, sending some Mana through it. His arm wasn’t that fatigued but it was good to have it in the best shape possible. He settled down, sitting against the barricade.
“This is boring.” Steve sighed as his metal ass clanged on the ground.
“We’ve got death lords and more draugr coming our way. There are also reports of high-leveled mountain wolves,” Josh said.
“You just had to say something.” Dave used his Touch as he watched the next massed charge headed for them.
***
“Damn. It’s a beautiful night for flying,” Steve said as about thirty draugrs went flying through the air, windmilling or in simple bits.
“Wow, Steve.”
“I guess they’re right, you know...immortals aren’t wise—they’re just taking the long route to dying, though this route looks parabolic,” Steve finished.
Dave shook his head as the draugr started to come back down.
“Come on, dude. That was nerdy, smart, and funny!”
“How is that nerdy and smart?” Dave fired more arrows at the draugr that were quickly approaching. He ducked as one of their arrows came close to hitting him in the shoulder.
“Well, nerds know a lot about a single thing, right?”
“Right.” Dave hit a draugr in the head, making them go ass over teakettle.
“Smart is like knowing smart things like math, or parabolas. I could be a nerd about games because I like them. Though I’m only smart about them if I know how they work, or figure out a way to make the game my biatch.” Steve spread his hands out and grinned as if he’d bestowed God’s given truth on Dave. “Though that isn’t the best part.”
“What’s the best part?” Dave asked, firing and releasing, sending two arrows in as many seconds into a draugr not fifty meters away.
Dave ducked and looked at Steve’s grinning face.
“You admitted it was funny!”
“How’s that?” Dave rose and fired, taking a draugr in the face.
“Process of elimination!”
“Well, you want to process these guys to elimination?” Dave fired at the draugr, ducking back into cover to change to his sword and shield as traps started going off. Magical artillery had been going off for the past hour.
“Dude, that’s like, wow. Was that some kind of terrible pun? I think my ears hurt from that. We need to work on your joking, dude,” Steve said with a sad expression.
“You don’t have ears and it’s not so bad that you have to look like someone killed your fricking puppy!” Dave said, looking over the barricade.
“Dave, the joke killer—may he forever remain punless.” Steve got to his feet.
“You know that thing you do where you open your mouth and sounds come out?”
“You mean talking?”
“Yeah, that. Stop it.”
“Holy shit, Dave, I think you might be getting a hang of this whole joking thing.” Steve, honest to God, looked surprised, right as he slammed his axe into a draugr so hard that it sent two others to the ground.
Dave shook his head and moved into the fight, holding two blades with golden runes down their sides. He lost himself to the fight.
Most people thought that it’s about nice and clean moves, about using your styles against another’s. Mostly it was acting, reacting, listening to your instincts—except that one that told you to run away and hide—and sticking the pointy end into the bastard any way possible. If it looked pretty, then you were usually some pompous dickhead or used to duels instead of actual fighting.
Dave moved fast; his grace and style was economy of motion, landing multiple hits, kicking draugr back, jumping out of the way of blades, and raining holy hell on top of anything that was near him.
Buffs increased his speed and blessed him.
Light mages were doing their best, wearing down the draugrs and blessing the fighters, making every hit stronger and draining the draugrs of their power. Not one made it past the Stone Raiders’ lines, stopped by the massed metal of the fighters.
While the mages played their part supporting the line, they weren’t heavily engaged in the battle yet. While they focused on wearing the draugar down in the distance so the Stone Raiders weren’t overwhelmed, many of the mages and support held their abilities back. Using them now would just be a waste if they were to fight anything stronger. Dave’s blades left two slashes of light in their path as draugrs let out their pained wails.
Steve giggled and laughed.
“Fuck! We’ve got to go bowling! This shit is too funny! Like a bunch of crappy toothpicks!” Steve devolved into outright laughing.
Dave smiled even in the middle of battle. Steve was a good person to have by your side—annoying when he was bored, but he had your back in a fight.
The draugr were landing hits on him, but his armor and Strength were not something to be laughed at. Few of the attacks had breached his steel layer; none had made it past his true Mithril armor.
“Fore!” Steve’s axe slammed into a draugr, tearing it asunder and sending it flying.
Dave couldn’t hold it anymore. He chuckled, turning into full on laughing. A shield formed in his hand as he slammed a blade away. The stress that had been weighing on him fell away—the fear of death, of fucking up, and of knowing that this was real.
He could come back from the dead, and so what if he fucked up? He had his guild around him; they would help him. He had made his armor to support him, but he hadn’t even started to try to see what it was capable of. He was always sitting back and analyzing a fight.
He wasn’t living it.
For once he stopped thinking of the parties; he thought of the movement. He acted and reacted.
A smile appeared on his face. His world had been turned upside down in just a few short months, yet Emerilia was everything that he desired. He had wanted to get away from the drudgery of Earth and he had come to Emerilia in order to do that. This was his home; this was his refuge and where he belonged.
Somewhere along the way, he had stopped thinking of this as a refuge and started to see it as a job.
