Forge of Eternity: Alpha Testing, page 14
You critically strike Unknown Player (Punchable Face) for 42 Earth damage with Stone Strike.
Unknown Player (Punchable face) is Stunned for 5 seconds…
I chuckled at the label the game had given the player as he fell back a step, clutching at his face. I increased the distance between us, running several steps and turning around to level a Firebolt at him. The silvery end of a thin blade burst through his neck at the same time my spell connected. As he crumpled to the ground, his hood fell back revealing short blond hair and a vaguely familiar face. No time to linger on that, I readied my wand again and found Uri holding his rapier out to the side casually.
“Oh, you had this covered?” he asked, looking a little disappointed. “Was that slow spell helpful at least?”
“What? Yes, you save my life. I’m very grateful. Now go back to helping the others or we’re all going to die anyway.”
Uri’s eyes widened in surprise as Deacon absorbed a full-force strike on his shoulder from Bruce’s wooden sword, barely moving his head out of the way of the vertical blow. I skirted the edge of the clearing to get a better angle, while Uri rushed back to the main fight. A quick glance at the party’s icons showed that the fight was not going well. Gavin’s health was full, but his mana was sitting at about a third. Deacon’s health was just over half full, but both Phelyya and Uri had taken significant damage. I wasn’t sure if either of them could have survived another hit, considering what that first one had done.
With about half his health remaining, Bruce abandoned active defense, letting his armor dampen the incoming attacks as he chambered his sword for another of those wild slashes. I stopped moving, took careful aim with my wand, and sent a Firebolt into his face.
You attack Unknown Player (Bruce) with Minor Firebolt for 38 Fire damage
I was pleased to see him abandon the swing, raising a hand to his face instinctively. Both Phelyya and Uri rushed in during the distraction, connecting with sloppy blows as they got in each other’s way. Deacon got back into position, pushing the others aside and knocking back Bruce with a shield bash. The attack did no notable damage and Deacon received the broadside of the wooden greatsword across the face in return for his efforts.
Deacon fell to one knee, but Uri managed to pull the enemy’s attention with harassing jabs to the face and weak points in the armor. Several of Bruce’s strikes came close to connecting, but Uri managed to step out of the way of the slow lumbering blows. A kick from the giant opponent almost took him down, but he managed to fire off a slow spell that gave him just enough time to get clear. I failed to repeat my earlier success at a targeted attack, the glancing blows doing negligible amounts of damage.
With our tank out of the fight, this was not going to last long. All it took was one good shot from the giant to take out any of the others in the party. We needed to tip the scale back in our favor. I looked around for anything that might give us an advantage. Looking up, I gave the figure in the tree a little more attention. It appeared to be a human woman, and not as lifeless as she’d seemed when we approached. We made eye contact and she motioned toward the rope holding her in place. The fight had moved away from the tree, Bruce having driven our party back several yards during the battle. With his back to us, I had a perfect angle to get her down without drawing his attention. Fingers crossed, I moved in to help her down.
Deacon - Tanking
I knelt down on one knee, gasping for air after a particularly strong hit to the chest. Shifting my focus away from my opponent for a second I confirmed my stamina had fully depleted, the gauge showing 0 out of 128, and my health was hovering at 38 out of 171. The raw strength of this giant was way beyond mine, and it was somehow exceeded by his resiliency. Bruce was shrugging off any strike that made it through his guard, only the occasional hit seemed to register. I couldn’t tell if it was his armor, the level difference, or some class or racial ability. Whatever it was, we weren’t doing much to counter it.
As I watched Bruce’s perpetual smile, my stamina and health began to rise. Gavin’s hand on my shoulder spread a soothing numbness into my damaged body. Another few seconds and I might be able to stand again. Too bad we didn’t have a few seconds. There was no way that giant would wait for me to catch my breath when I was practically begging for a killing blow. I lowered my head, trying to conserve what strength I still had, in case I needed to roll away one more time.
“Boo,” Bruce jeered from above me. “You can’t be done already. Bruce just started having fun. Get up, little rock man.”
Stick and stones may break my bones, but listening to this idiot’s banter was probably going to drive me insane. He hadn’t spoken a ton since we started fighting, but when he did it was like listening to fight commentary filtered through a brain-damaged Muppet. The player was clearly hamming up the big dumb guy stereotype of his character. When he talked, it highlighted how little mental effort this fight was taking on his end which was maddening.
“Hey, go away stupid stabby man!” Bruce said, I assumed to Uri. Well, that’s it then. I’ll be dying now apparently. Neither Uri nor Phelyya could handle anything more than a glancing blow from Bruce. I looked up as I continued trying to recover, wanting to see when my death was on its way now that it didn’t hurt as much.
Oh, that was unexpected. Looks like Uri could manage some worthwhile evasion tanking. He may be fighting an unwinnable matchup, but at least he was giving it his all. If he was giving me the break I needed, I may as well see this through.
“Gavin, do you have any tricks left up your sleeve?” I asked, looking over at him. It was weird being eye-level with a halfling and I shifted to try to get a little more upright.
“I have indeed been keeping an ability in reserve,” Gavin nodded, brow furrowed. “Though I must be truthful and fully illuminate you regarding the-”
“Cut the shit, Gavin. What does it do?”
“Either you gain a large healing buff or all damage taken is doubled. It’s a 30-second duration either way.”
“You’re the worst healer,” I said, standing up. “You do know that, right?”
Gavin flashed a grin and nodded, assuming his spot behind me and slightly to the right.
“Deacon?” Uri called out with worry in his voice. “You, uh, think you can tag back in?”
I noticed his health was still fine but both his Stamina and Mana were running low.
“But little stabby man is so fun to play with,” Bruce whined. “Just a couple more swings. He’s been running around and then making Bruce slow. Bruce will get him though.”
I really hoped the rhyming was accidental. Uri managed to get a couple of strikes in while I was down, bringing the big man down to 160 out of 300 health. It was nice to see his health had stopped refilling on its own for the moment. Hopefully, he was out of self-healing abilities. If I can just not die, we might be able to win through attrition. If I can do more than just not die, however…
“Gavin, on my signal, do the thing,” I said, readying my guard. The wicker shield felt fragile and thin on my arm. Hopefully, it would hold up for the remainder of the battle.
“Hey rock man, do you think this guy can take big hits like you?”
The wooden armored giant was grinning broadly, preparing for one of his large sweeping attacks. While relatively easy to predict, it was difficult to guard against without completely disengaging.
“Uri, get back. Gavin, do the thing,” I readied my shield and stepped into the path of Bruce’s attack, planting my feet and rooting myself to the ground with Weight of the Mountain. Gavin tapped me with his staff as he dodged out of the way and I felt a weaker version of his healing seem to wrap around my body.
Just before the giant greatsword connected, I activated Kinetic Capacitor and thanked my past self for the foresight in picking it up at level three. The Instant Earthwork ability was great, but in a close melee fight, I couldn’t guarantee I’d get the distance to use it. Not only that, the earthworks were almost entirely defensive, the knockback doing no inherent damage of its own.
The numbness of Gavin’s healing, a constant pins, and needles feeling through my whole body at this point, instantly gave way to a pleasant warmth. The effect was similar to easing into a hot bath after a long day, all the fatigue and pain slipping from my mind.
When Bruce’s wild swing connected with my shield arm, I felt bones shift and the shield crack but I remained standing. The agonizing pain or distracting numbness of Gavin’s healing was replaced instead by an increase in the Kinetic Capacitor’s warmth. The sensation wasn’t unpleasant, like raising the temperature of water from warm to tolerably hot.
Unknown Player (Bruce) strikes you for 16 (81 minus 65 absorbed) damage.
Kinetic Capacitor stores 65 damage.
Gambler’s Blessing heals you for 20 damage.
I checked my buffs, the Gambler’s Blessing countdown showing 28 seconds remaining and the Kinetic Capacitor ticked down to 8 as I looked. My health was sitting at 153 out of 171 after that exchange. Between the healing and damage mitigation, I had a solid 8 seconds to soak as much damage as I could. After that buff wore off I’d get an increase to my damage based on the hits I’d taken. Plus, I’d still have 20 seconds of Gavin’s healing buff, which could heal me back from maybe one or two bad hits. I could work with that.
I stepped in closer, immediately sent backward with a knee to the ribs. The wooden plate-style armor had rough spikes near the joints, which I was glad I couldn’t feel. A quick glance showed that they hadn’t broken the skin at least. Bruce cocked his head to the side in confusion as he looked down at me.
“Why aren’t you bleeding anymore? That’s not fair! It’s okay though, Bruce can fix this,” Bruce said, bringing an overhead blow down faster than I thought he could move. I raised my shield, reinforced it with my other arm, and gritted my teeth at the impact.
Unknown Player (Bruce) strikes you for 15 (75 minus 60 absorbed) damage
Kinetic Capacitor stores 60 damage
Gambler’s Blessing heals you for 23 damage
Bruce pulled back to prepare for another massive strike, leaving a target too good to pass up. I stepped in again, deflecting his knee this time, and connected with two ineffective slashes against his breastplate. My third strike was a lucky jab against his unarmored cheek. He was not pleased, the toothy grin slipped off his face as he stomped on my foot. With my limited mobility, I was unable to avoid the giant-sized headbutt that nearly knocked me to the ground.
A frantic slash at his face released my pinned foot. I backpedaled as he advanced, blocking his barrage of quick and simple attacks. The shield cracked and splintered with each impact, feeling significantly less solid as time went on. I made a mental note not to trust it any more than I absolutely had to. The Kinetic Capacitor icon flashed red in my vision and turned to ash, ending the damage mitigation. A new icon appeared in its place along with a notification in my logs.
Kinetic Discharge (270 damage absorbed)
I wasn’t about to do mental math in the middle of a fight, but I shuddered to think of how much damage I would have taken if 270 was just the 80% my ability blocked. As it stood, my health was pretty much back at full and the Gambler’s Blessing buff was still active. The rest of the party had taken the time to recover a bit as well, from what I could see in the party icons. Gavin’s mana was out completely, but Phelyya and Uri both sat just above 75% health with Gavin almost at full. Amalie was under a third, probably from that scuffle with the rogue, but I couldn’t worry about that right now.
“As much as I’m enjoying having all the fun, I could use a little help here,” I said, switching to dodges and sloppy parries. Two seconds ticked off the Kinetic Discharge while I was stuck in full defense mode, then Uri and Phelyya were back in range and forcing Bruce to pay them some attention. The moment the giant turned to counter Phelyya’s blades, I laid into him with a series of slashes. I was using more force than finesse, focusing on simple rapid strikes. My goal was to wear him down as much as I could with my buff active.
You attack Unknown Human (Bruce) with Kinetic Strike for 14 physical damage
You attack Unknown Human (Bruce) with Kinetic Strike for 11 physical damage
You attack Unknown Human (Bruce) with Kinetic Strike for 13 physical damage
You attack Unknown Human (Bruce) with Kinetic Strike for 11 physical damage
Chips began to rain from his wooden plate armor and the smile on his face shifted to a sneer. He began blocking the strikes in earnest with more frequency, no longer trusting the armor alone to protect him. Between the Kinetic Discharge, and whatever hits the others managed to connect with, we dropped him down to 80 health before my damage buff expired. Gambler’s Blessing still had 10 seconds left, which may as well have been an eternity at this pace. I kept up the attack even when the buff died out, hoping to keep him on the defensive as long as my stamina held out.
Bruce blocked one of my strikes with his badly chipped wooden greatsword, my blade digging in and getting stuck for the briefest of moments. That was all the time he needed, kicking me high in the chest and knocking me on my ass. I may be able to keep my feet pinned to the ground, but that’s asking for issues if my upper body isn’t braced for an impact. Scrambling back to my feet, I saw Phelyya fall back while Uri stepped forward into my spot. The giant showed him an extremely wide, toothy grin.
“Uri, get back!” I yelled, not liking our opponent’s expression. As soon as Uri was clear, Bruce was struck with a bolt of green lightning. The electricity didn’t fade, instead remaining attached in a solid arc. Glad to see Amalie decided to participate in the real fight now. Wait, when did she pick up a lightning spell?
I followed the spell to see a dark-haired human woman channeling the lightning, a few steps away from Amalie. Her robes showed more skin than Amalie’s functional adventurer’s robes, glittering embroidery drawing the eye to distracting curves. The woman was walking toward Bruce, angling her path to avoid sending the current directly through us. Her long hair stood up in all directions, pulled away from gravity by the static electricity of the magic. I was just about to get my hopes up that we’d picked up help when I saw a blast of fire from Amalie impact the woman with no apparent effect. At that, Amalie sprinted in our direction.
“Looks like she’s not on our side then?” Phelyya asked as we regrouped.
“Maybe she’s using the armor against him?” Uri suggested with unconvincing optimism in his voice.
“Creepy bitch is with the big guy,” Amalie said between panting breaths. “Some sort of nature mage. She tried to choke me to death with vines.”
We all continued to put distance between ourselves and the lightning-covered giant. Amalie’s robes had green stains and fresh char marks near her shoulder. Probably burned herself free, which also explains why I hadn’t seen any magic flying around.
“Why didn’t you call for help?” Uri asked.
“What part of choking to death make you think I could do that?’
Urivon: Party chat would have worked.
The chat window bounced for acknowledgment next to my log window.
“What!?” Amalie yelled in surprise. “How did I miss this?”
“Maybe now isn’t the time?” I hedged, seeing that the woman was still channeling and making her way toward the giant. We were now on opposite sides of the clearing, a good sixty feet apart at least. As we watched, the tank’s armor began to move. Even at a distance, we could see gashes and scars from the battle healed as the wood grew, jagged spikes forming in irregular patterns. Thick thorns sprouted from the blade of the greatsword, filling in any of the nicks and dents. After the initial rush, the growth of the armor slowed as small vines started to sprout from it.
“Okay, so, what’s the plan? You have a plan, right?” Amalie asked.
“Welcome back to the fight, the plan is do damage to them until they die,” I said with a shrug. “Really not much else we can do here.”
“Seriously? Tell me you have something for this.”
“I would be willing to accept your surrender,” a strangely modulated female voice interrupted us. “Dedicating your deaths to our patron would really be more helpful in the short term, but you’ve fought well and I may consider offering you an invitation to our faction.”
“I must say,” Gavin stepped forward, “that pitch could use a little work. Can you try again, but really focus on what you want us to feel about your offer? What do we really gain? What are the costs and terms?”
“Gavin, what are you doing?” I asked, speaking quietly.
Phelyya: Seriously, use party chat for this stuff.
“How?” Amalie asked verbally, at normal volume.
Phelyya: Just type, duh.
Urivon: Not helpful, you’re the only one at a keyboard.
Urivon: Think about the party chat and sub-vocalize what you want to say.
Gavin: I’m trying to learn about our enemy.
Gavin: Maybe we can get out of this diplomatically.
Phelyya: Doubt it.
I nodded in agreement, pointing at Phelyya. Gavin shrugged and stepped back to his spot in the formation as the woman stopped channeling the lightning.
“You have until Bruce reaches your party to surrender,” the woman said, her voice now less modulated and more hollow. “You aren’t going to win.”
With that she began an incantation, softly chanting in an arcane tongue that bore no resemblance to any real languages. There was a slight pulsing in the ground around her that I felt through my connection to the earth, slowly spreading as she chanted. I looked past Bruce and inspected the woman, seeing that she was also level 5 with 145 out of 150 health. Bruce was still sitting at 80 out of 300, but his armor had become considerably harder to penetrate from the looks of it. Additional branches swayed and twisted along his extremities, providing a malleable and adaptive layer of protection over most of the vulnerable spots we’d been targeting during the fight. There was even a dome of slowly moving vines protecting his head.
