Age of Victoria, page 12
All I could do was stand there and be beaten senseless while Robert faced down the short black-clad goblin. After a few hits by the small goblin and his feeble attempts to return the blows, he risked casting his fast but expensive group healing spell. This helped restore his health, as well as my own, but it caused the monster beating on me to turn to Robert instead. My stun faded just in time for me to see the backside of the goblin warrior running at Robert to join the short goblin's onslaught. Oddly, before the Goblin warrior reached Robert, it stopped to try and attack the goblin skeleton that was riding on its back. I wasn’t going to waste such a distraction. Sidestepping the skeleton and his goblin mount, I taunted Robert’s enemy. For once this was not enough to change an enemies target. After slicing into the short goblin’s back a couple times, I gained his ire enough that he turned from Robert. Focusing on the smaller enemy, I requested his information.
Shan-Dar Clan
Goblin Stalker - Elite
Rogue - Lvl 3
This opponent appears to be beneath you.
A rogue!
I now knew what had happened. Somehow this rogue had gotten behind us and attacked using a backstab just like the beetle. Rogues had less life than warriors and took more damage, but from behind they could perform one single massive attack with their backstab. Luckily they couldn’t repeatedly use that attack. Otherwise, Annie would have died in seconds. With the thought of my sister bleeding out on the ground, I attacked with greater ferocity. It wasn’t long before my attacks ended the rogue and I turned to attack the warrior. It was a good thing as well since the goblin warrior had just finished the skeleton that had been clawing at its back and was turning to Emma.
Contemptuously, Emma cast creeping shadows on the warrior and then her soul capturing spell. The warrior was slowly moving towards Emma while drooling and slavering. Attacking the goblin from behind, I had free reign to beat on the enraged warrior as it ponderously chased after Emma. When it was finally dead, Emma began recreating her skeleton while Robert sat and panted trying to recover his mana.
“We should probably go back and clear out some of the other goblins to keep another rogue from coming up behind us,” I said.
Emma shook her head, but we had to wait for her to finish her casting before she explained further.
“That won’t help. That goblin was invisible. He just appeared behind Annie. I think he was standing next to the other goblin guarding the doorway, but we couldn’t see him,” she said.
My stomach knotted at the new problem. Invisible enemies could mean suddenly fighting a large number of foes at any time with no warning.
Chapter 16
Once I detailed my experience of the beetle backstabbing me when I wasn’t paying attention, everyone grouped up in an awkward circle facing outward. It seemed like the obvious solution to a potentially invisible enemy. The rogue we killed never disappeared after he ambushed Annie, so it was likely their invisibility was like their backstab: limited. Once they were visible, they would have to remain visible. It wasn’t a certainty, but it was likely, and it was our only plan. As long as they didn’t ambush anyone with a backstab, they would be limited to being just a weaker warrior.
The next room clearings were awkward in an entirely new way. Maintaining such a tight formation meant slowly walking along while trying to keep shoulder to shoulder. Fighting was a nightmare. After a hidden rogue appeared next to Robert, who was right behind me, I had to use my taunt to pull the rogue away from him. This meant a delay where the rogue stabbed him multiple times before my taunt was available. This, in turn, had me only maintaining the aggression of my warrior enemy through damage, something my sister was able to overpower in short order.
After the third room, Emma called a halt to our progress.
“I think the rogues are just standing in the spots the warriors would be, just invisible. If we don’t see a goblin in the hallway beyond the room, it might be an invisible rogue. That’s the only real risk that we would get all three at once,” she said.
Robert voiced my frustration before I could, “That doesn’t make any sense, why would they act like that? Even the mentally deficient would be able to see that as a poor plan!”
“I think they are limited in the ways they can think,” I said.
At that, everyone focused on me.
Straightening up I continued, “Remember the first message? These are the forces of the ‘Old Ones,’ I think these creatures are being mind controlled to only act in certain ways. These are the ground troops. Their thinking has been restricted like a clockwork automaton. They act stupid, but there are many of them, and they will never rebel. As long as these ‘Old Ones’ have enough troops, they could march across the earth.”
My proposition was a sobering one and left everyone thinking silently. While we were handily defeating these goblins, these might be the weakest enemies in the Old One's army and the most mindless. More than once we had almost died, if the later enemies were more capable, more intelligent, then we were in trouble, the world was in trouble.
Emma shook her head slightly before speaking up, “It doesn’t matter, we have to get through this dungeon before we can do anything else. We don’t even know how the Colonel and the rest of the household are doing, let alone the world.”
I frowned at that. I had left everyone alone and had set out on my own to gain my freedom, and if I was honest, the power to control my own life. Everyone else had been left in my wake without a second thought in my drive to be free. It’s was only because my family and friends cared so deeply for me that I was still alive. They had aligned themselves with my goals without even needing to be asked, and I would have to repay that loyalty in kind from now on. A fierce wish to do better, and a bitter pit of guilt sat in my stomach from my thoughts, but all I could do was press forward and keep it in mind.
“All right, let’s keep moving forward,” I said before turning to the two casters, “You two stand back to back while we fight. I want you two protected from any backstabbing rogues. Robert and I can survive an ambush but a lucky backstab while I’m stunned could be the end of one of you.”
Our new formation was more straightforward and allowed us to continue the long march through the enemy-infested stronghold. The length of these tunnels was mind-blowing. Both caves and stone block rooms, each had to be carved from the earth and would have taken humans hundreds of years to build. Yet, here it was, all of it in a day. Whoever these ‘Old Ones’ were, they had power.
The next room looked clear, and that had us bunching up in concern. This was the very issue we had been worried about. Was it clear? Were there two or three rogues there? Was the room packed full? It could house a horde of the invisible enemies, and we wouldn’t know.
“Annie, I’ll stand at the entrance here. I want you to throw a fireball at the other door. If Emma is right, there should be two goblins there. If the fire makes them visible, so be it. Otherwise, I hope they attack me as they come through the doorway. After you throw your fire, get back to back with Emma. Robert, you should stand back to back with me as well,” I said, trying taking charge of the situation.
Biting her lower lip, Annie stepped forward with a glowing orb in her right hand and aimed for the empty doorway.
When the fireball exploded on the ground of the stone arch, two rogues suddenly appeared. Their skin burnt, both goblins focused on Annie and screaming, they attacked. With a feral grin, I bent my knees in a wide stance preparing to take the focus of the two enemies. I used taunt on the rightmost goblin, its bloodshot eyes shifted to me, and I knew it was no longer planning to attack Annie. The goblin on the right though was going to try and run around me and attack her. I left slightly more room on my left side to entice the goblin in, and he stepped into the trap. When the goblin was in front of me and moving to step around, I bashed with my shield trying to knock the oblivious goblin to the ground. I failed to knock him down, but the top edge of my shield caught the goblin across the bottom of his nose at the bridge of his lip. The swirling stars and duckies told me he was no danger to my sister for now.
The rogue that I had taunted tried to stab under my sword arm, and I noticed that unlike the goblin warriors, it was trying to move around behind me on my right side. With the leftmost goblin stunned, I had room to step around the goblin on my right, keeping both enemies in my sight. My movements and shield bash had caused my left arm to be open to a slash on the inner wrist. Three debuffs appeared in my mind's eye from that slash: crippled left arm, bleeding, and poison.
“Their daggers are poisoned, watch out,” I said while trying to defend while my suddenly limp arm dragged my tower shield beside me.
The dangers of having such a large shield were now apparent. If I were using a smaller shield like one of the bucklers or kite shields on the wall of the mansion, then I wouldn’t be as hindered. Still, the ability to duck down and be covered entirely might be as useful in the future as this was a hindrance now. While I clumsily attempted to attack the rogue, Emma used her darkness spell and poison bolt on the stunned rogue then attacked with her skeleton minion. I was tempted to turn to try and keep it in sight as she dragged it behind me, but I had to trust that she could handle things for herself. Besides, I was having enough difficulties with this goblin alone. The multiple debuffs had significantly reduced my combat effectiveness, the shield hindering me severely.
After almost tripping and falling over the edge of my shield, I mentally pulled up my character window. Selecting my shield with my mind, I willed it to be removed and placed in my inventory. The sudden loss of the weight on my arm and the flopping bleeding hand threw my rhythm off. Now that I wasn’t dragging the dead weight around, I was in a far better position to fight. My ineffective combat, and Robert healing me from the poison, suddenly had the rogue turning to attack him.
I smiled as the rogue tried to go around me to attack Robert. Ignoring one opponent to attack another, leaving your defense open, seemed to be another idiotic thing these monsters were prone too. Swinging my cleaver of a sword down on the goblin’s shoulder, returned his focus to me. A few seconds of attacking and powering through the goblin’s attacks had the monster dead on the ground. A few seconds after it was down the cripple and poison debuffs faded. Emma’s target was slowly following her as she pelted it with poison bolts, so I paused to try and re-equip my shield. In my vision, a new blue box appeared.
Equipping items disallowed during combat.
Growling, I charged after Emma’s trailing goblin and joined her minion in striking against its head and shoulders.
When the second rogue was dead, I explained my discovery about equipment in combat, a restriction not mentioned in the ‘tutorial.’ Being able to unequip an item had been useful, but not being able to equip my shield until out of combat could have been a severe problem.
“Victoria, I think you should have this,” said Robert after looting what the goblin left behind.
Robert had been looting and storing the items from the goblins. He had a decent strength stat, required for the weight which was not reduced even when in the inventory. Annie had a mostly filled inventory, while Emma and I were close to empty. Still, by unspoken agreement we let Robert handle it.
Passing me a small silver ring with intricate knotwork on the band, I focused on its information.
Band of the Recovered Warrior
Tradeable
AC: -1
Class: All
Slot: Ring
Worn Effect: 2 health per second regeneration while worn.
Trigger Effect: Once an hour, increase regeneration by 20 health per second for 12 seconds.
The fact that the ring could reduce my AC was upsetting, but the two effects would be helpful. I wasn’t sure how useful the worn effect would be, but the triggered effect was terrific. I wanted to experiment with it, but I wasn’t willing to waste the effect just to see if ‘willing’ it to work was how it was used. My instincts said it was, but I would wait until I was in combat and had a bit of health gone before using it.
After resting up, I asked Annie to cast another fireball into the hallway. Her fireball was useful for grabbing an enemies attention since it exploded into a ball of flame and damaged all monsters in the area. Emma’s spells only affected the enemy she was directly targeting. Each of these spells, while seeming to have the same use, had slightly different effects. It was subtle, but I was betting that there would be other issues like these. Annie and Emma had spent a while last night discussing the possible problems.
The explosion of the fireball revealed the single rogue that had been patrolling the hallway. With only a single enemy to focus on, the fight was over shortly. With three people attacking a single enemy, the rogue died so quickly I was unable even to use my Warcry - Vigor ability. The feeling of so dominating an enemy was a nice one.
The end of this hallway had a small bend in it, unlike the rest. Approaching the doorway, I was listening for any movement. It was possible that a rogue was hiding anywhere in the area and my first knowledge of them would be a dagger to my back. The arch of stone appeared empty, and when I reached it, I peeked around the corner to see if any goblins were around. Finding none, I gestured for my family to follow along. The hallway had an odd z like structure, first turning left from the doorway, then right. Approaching the right turn, I found another doorway, but this door opened into a large room. In the center of the ample space stood a goblin cloaked in black leather with a mask and hood.
The only part of the goblin not covered by black leather or cloth was his mouth and eyes. Yellow teeth were displayed in a sharp grin while the green eyes stared at me. Focusing on the goblin, I felt my stomach drop at the information.
Shan-Dar Clan
Den'tah - Clan Rogue Trainer - Boss
Rogue - Lvl 4
This opponent appears to be beneath you.
Chapter 17
Pulling back from the doorway I huddled down next to my group and thought about what this meant. A rogue boss was a serious problem. The last boss was a warrior, and that is about as straight forward a class as possible. Even then, we had severe issues fighting him and all his minions. If this boss has minions, they would probably be rogues. For all we know, the whole room will be full of rogues hiding invisibly and waiting to attack the moment we step into the room. Even if there are no other rogues in the room, the previous boss had struck hard and had more health than his minions. If the rogue could hit harder than a normal rogue goblin, then a single backstab would be able to kill anyone but me in one hit.
Glancing around at each of my friends, I bit my bottom lip before outlining my thinking.
Emma and Annie were silent, both looking away from me as they considered the coming fight. Of all of us, they had the worst chances. If the rogue even once managed to get behind them, they were looking at a short, sharp end to our adventure. Robert might or might not survive a single hit, he had mentioned he had more constitution and better AC than the girls, but it was by no means certain.
“I think we should go back,” Robert said before Annie cut him off.
“No,” she said with a brave look.
Looking around at each of us she said, “No. We should move forward. I think we can do this. We should use our original circle formation.”
Robert looked away; I could see he wanted to argue but wouldn’t allow himself that kind of petulant behavior. I could understand it though; I wanted out of this dungeon as much as everyone else. But we had to fight smart to get out of here with all of us alive. Annie’s idea had merit though. If the rogue couldn’t get behind anyone, he couldn’t backstab them. Then we would have to worry about any minions, and if they were invisible then staying back to back would protect us even there. It wasn’t foolproof, but it looked like it would work.
Emma’s minion joined our huddle, and she had it speak, “I’ll have my skeleton outside the circle. It might draw in an attacker,” the voice was still creepy even after hearing it multiple times.
Shuffling into our circle position, we moved into the room. Walking like this was just as awkward as I remember it, but it was necessary. Robert faced the door we exited while I confronted the rogue trainer. As we approached the goblin opened his mouth, the sharp jagged teeth bared to the air before he held up his hands. The rogue spread his fingers wide, the index finger and palm lightly gripping two daggers while between each of his fingertips was a small black ball. Pulling his hands back down he took a firmer grip on his blades and raced forward only to fade into invisibility during his charge.
“He’s invisible! Be ready!” I shouted.
The sudden appearance of a dagger inches away from my left eye announced the arrival of the rogue. The feeling of the blade sliding into my eye socket and the wet feel of my eye bursting on my face was a white-hot ember of pain inside my skull. Screaming I swung my sword back and forth while flailing my shield to shove the goblin away. When my shield felt a momentary resistance, I pushed with all my might. I only managed to catch the rogue with the edge of my guard, but the pull on my skull as the dagger was removed made the experience excruciating. If I survive this, the feeling of my skull being moved from within by a handle of metal would haunt me.
In my mind's eye, I could see an eye patch covered head on the debuff. The timer read one hour and counting. The lack of vision on my left side would seriously hinder me in this fight, but I had little choice but to continue. The black-clad monster was directly in front of me when he regained his balance from my shove, his mouth open in a grin until I tried to shove my blade into it. I failed, the goblin was far too agile, but he didn’t come away unscathed. The left side of his face from lip to his ear was torn open through the cloth wrappings. A debuff of ‘disfigurement’ was floating around his head, but it didn’t seem to hinder his combat effectiveness as my debuff did.
