Age of Victoria, page 21
They both agreed but didn’t offer anything else in response to my concerns. I was sure that if they had a suggestion to ease my worries, they would say something, but the lack of response told me they could feel it as well. There were a lot of enemies, but they were low level, easy to kill, and all around us. The only creatures to give us any trouble had been the elites, and none of them even remotely compared to a boss within the dungeon.
With nothing but our vague unsettled feeling, all we could do was continue our rampage.
The third elite was a rogue and given our history with being backstabbed we tried to fight even more defensively than usual. We had the issue that the rogue was able to jump back and fade away. This wouldn’t have been too problematic, especially in that he stayed targeted to me, but at one point, he began to run, and he ran directly into another group of monsters.
This was the only real difficult fight. Even then, Emma threw out an area snare spell and Annie bombarded them with fireballs. This tactic took longer and had Emma repeating her snare spell far more often than she was doing damage, but ultimately it was no real difficulty. Had we just leveled so far that this area was too easy for us? Were we destined to complete this event and throw back this part of the invasion? If so, that was a good sign for the rest of humanity if our small group was able to so quickly become capable.
About halfway to reaching the fourth elite, another goblin warrior, Annie demonstrated something that reduced the difficulty even further. We were slowly clearing out the camp of goblins. I had managed to gather them around me and sliced each of them to keep them focused on me when Annie dropped her fireball. Usually, this would have the monsters turning to attack her, and a few seconds later, her second fireball would land. This second fireball and the burning debuff would be enough to kill most of the enemies. Emma and I would take a few swipes at the ones that survived, and they would only survive long enough to take a few more steps.
This time was different
The first fireball landed like normal, but it was instantly followed by a second fireball which fell only a heartbeat after the other. The two explosions were so closely spaced that it sounded like rolling thunder. Only one goblin, which had been partially protected from the blast by one of the warriors, survived the fiery explosions. With a couple of careless swipes, I ended the charred enemy.
Emma asked the same question I had, “What did you do?”
Annie smiled and held up her hand to show off a forming fireball; after a second, the ball was floating above her hand.
“I kept wondering why casting a fireball had this step where the ball would form and then just hover over my hand until I focused on making it fly,” she said while gently bouncing the ball in her hand.
Holding her hand stationary with the flaming ball resting above it, she continued. “It was so annoying. If I stop focusing, the fireball goes away. I recover some of the mana, but it was an extra step, and if I just lost focus for a moment, I would waste most of the mana!”
So saying her fireball glowed brighter for a moment and then unraveled in the air while part of the ball turned into little glowing motes of blue light that rushed into her hand.
Annie flipped her hand over as if showing off a stage trick. To be fair, even a few days earlier, I would have found her performance more magnificent than any I had seen at the grand shows of London.
Annie repeated her trick of forming a ball of fire and bouncing it into the air on her left hand before she focused on her right hand.
“But if I keep the first fireball in mind, I can form a second one and have two waiting to go. It’s hard to keep my focus on two things at all times, but as long as I manage, I can throw two fireballs one after the other!”
With a wicked smile, she let both fireballs dissipate into the air as she had her first, the strain of focusing on both spells while talking to us had shown in her face. She had stared into space with a puckered expression, the tip of her tongue just barely pushed between her teeth, a look I hadn’t seen since we had been little girls and she was learning arithmetic.
“The downside is that whatever mana I use to form a fireball is locked up into the spell, and I can’t regenerate it until the fireball is cast or recovered.”
With Annie’s new trick with the dual fireballs, she was able to keep one spell ready at all moments even as she would form a second one. This only sped up her casting time by a few seconds, but a few seconds matter a great deal during a fight. With Annie’s new fireball speed, Emma stopped trying to do damage at all. She just changed to casting the area snare spell and then Annie would throw her fireball into the group. This left the monsters burning and running towards Annie and had me smacking at their backs while she lobbed another fireball at the group. We went from killing a camp every few minutes to scything through them in half the time.
I was resisting the urge to complain about feeling useless, especially since this could only help us end the threat faster. By the look on Robert’s face, I wasn’t the only one feeling superfluous. Unfortunately, someone else agreed with our feelings.
Bonus Event!
“Uh…” Robert said.
I agreed with Roberts confusion. All of us hunched down and looked around, trying to figure out what was going on.
From across the swarm of camps came a scream of anger.
“You WORMS!”
Finding that whatever was coming was starting with words calmed me enough to stand straight and look towards the voice. Behind the groups was a stone platform, one I would have sworn an oath had not been there even moments before. The platform housed three large goblins, with the largest being a barrel-chested goblin with colored paint splashed across his body. The color wasn’t in patterns or designs; they looked instead like someone had chucked open cans of paint at him. Next to him stood an old and hunched goblin. Unfortunately, more of the elder goblin was on display than with the larger one, namely, all of it. The wrinkled goblin was standing there without a stitch of clothing on while clutching a chest-high staff strewn with bones, feathers, and stones all tied to the stick with bits of leather. Near the two eye-catching goblins stood a smaller, but still more substantial than the average goblin elite. This goblin held the only shiny weapon I had seen in the camp. His weapon was a sizeable one-handed mace. Besides the standard loin cloth leather armor, he also wore a rusted helmet with an open face guard.
The large goblin covered in paint stood on the highest step of the stone platform and screamed at us past the field of his followers.
“You think you can defeat the Shan-dar clan? Do you think greater strength will protect you? We have fought across the Fields of the Unbroken! We have decimated the Mind Flayers! We serve the Old-Ones and have been set in this new world, with new lives, and we will travel over this land like a locust and consume it all!”
The large goblin’s words continued in an unhinged rant, screaming about places their clan had been and the foes they had defeated. It took a few minutes, but even the old codger goblin seemed to have reached a limit. While the large goblin was screaming and yelling, foam flecking his lips, the naked goblin began to cast a spell. During this entire tirade, we just stood watching. Partially it was confusion, partly it was that there was a crowd of silent goblins between us and the chieftain on the podium, and partially it was that no one wanted to look in the general direction of an old naked goblin.
Once the spell began, the large goblin stopped his tirade about the might and conquest of the Shan-dar clan and changed over to a darker theme.
“Now, NOW! Begins my rise! MY clan is with me, and I am one with them! Through our worship of the Ancient of Sacrifice, we have been blessed with a power unlike any other. Show them Kul-det! Show them!” screamed the chieftain as the goblins from the different camps began to walk towards the podium.
The old goblin slammed his staff down on the ground, and from the top of it, a slender spearhead was exposed. The goblin with the helm kneeled in front of the naked elder and leaned backward with arms held wide. While the goblin was old, his body was made up of lean muscles, and he used those muscles to drive the spearhead into the heart of the kneeling goblin. With a prying motion, he expanded the hole and out gushed the dark fluid. With one hand, the old goblin smeared himself with blood and pressed it to the chest of the chief.
Champions defeated 4/5.
The chieftain stood aloft with his hands held wide, his teeth bared at the tribe while the spell’s green filaments slowly edged in and out of the smear and through his chest and back to the shaman. The old shaman lifted the staff in the air, and the tribe dropped to their knees. The surrounding goblins began to emit a high pitched keening, a sound without words, and the spell shot out of the chieftain and into the surrounding goblins connecting to each of their hearts.
Slapping his chest and roaring the goblin chieftain continued, “Now I will rise with the power of my people! I will become a titan of destruction that will rampage upon this land, and the Ancient of Sacrifice will reward us with a new rebirth! Kneel my brethren! Kneel and fulfill my dest-”
Chief defeated 1/1.
The goblin chieftain’s voice was cut short when the shaman drove the spearhead through the large goblin’s neck. Clutching at his wound, the chieftain turned wide, wild eyes to the shaman who casually stabbed him in the heart — pulling the spearhead free from the injury he licked across the blade leaving his mouth smeared with crimson. The glowing green lines which had connected the tribe to the chieftain pulled back through the heart wound of the painted goblin and flowed into the elder. Visibly the clan began to wither and die, a pulsing light passing through the cords into the chieftain and then into the shaman. As each pulse passed through the spell the shaman’s skin smoothed and his arms flexed with new strength, while the entire time the clan members kneeled and screamed in torment.
Turning back to my party, the no longer as old goblin smiled and spoke, “Sacrifices always return less than is given, but if I am the one to gain, what do I care? Tell me, how many sacrifices remain in your den?”
Ignoring the shaman, I attacked the nearest sacrificed goblin, whipping my sword around with a two-handed strike aimed at the goblin’s neck. My swing cleaved the goblin’s head from his shoulder, and the glowing line connecting him to the chieftain snapped and flailed around, leaking a green mist onto the ground. I had worried that killing the goblin would change nothing and all we could do was wait until the goblins had died and empowered the shaman, but it appeared that the goblins had to die slow painful deaths for the ritual. Putting them out of their misery would reduce the shaman’s power.
Charging into the crowd while switching to my offense stance, I shouted: “Kill them all!”
Chapter 32
Screaming ‘kill them all’ and charging into battle was less a plan and more a reaction to our plan falling through. There was no way we could end all of the goblins, there were at least a thousand in the camps surrounding us. It wasn’t the worst idea, the shaman was gaining power from the goblins, and when they died it robbed him of some that, it just wasn’t the best plan.
“Head to the shaman!” Annie screamed while lobbing fireballs one after another into the crowds in front of the podium.
I didn’t know what Annie was planning, but killing towards the shaman was a decent plan. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Emma was throwing out clouds of poison at further away goblin groups. Since her spells took time to kill, spreading her damage out over a more significant footprint was the best choice for the necromancer. My distraction cost me when I tripped over a goblin’s dropped sword and slammed face down into the ground. Robert yanked me from the forest floor and pushed me forward while swinging his mace at the goblins as we passed.
Without a need for defense, I switched out my shield for my other sword. Using both my weapons at the same time while in offensive stance was a surreal experience. Instead of lines of attack and movement, the world seemed to glow with a swarm of interconnected threads, each of which knotted to another, and all of them were a way for me to deliver death. For a while, I lost myself in the dance. With the goblin horde unmoving in the grip of the ritual, I focused on only the lines of attack which lead to vital points. Lungs, necks, eyes, groins, hearts, each became the central focus of the movement of my blades. Once I was lining up only critical strikes, I switched to minimizing my movements, ensuring that my blades were continually flowing from wound to wound.
With so many targets I couldn’t be sure how many I killed, but my trance was disrupted when my blade bounced off of what appeared to be air until my sword touched it. The impact vibrated up my arm and nearly cost me the grip on my weapon. When I looked around in a stupor, I could see the naked goblin grinning at me, the shaman’s once paper-thin skin was now goblin green and youthful looking.
Licking his lips the goblin stared down at me, “Hmmm. The taste of youth. It’s been centuries since I’ve felt this. My Master so does love sacrifice, and he shares the scraps from his table to his faithful.”
Suddenly jumping forward the goblin’s jagged teeth snapped in my face. With a shout of surprise, I swung my sword at the goblin, and again my sword rebounded from a glowing green shield that appeared between us. Leaning backward the naked shaman started cackling at my reaction.
Waves survived 2/10.
Waves survived 3/10.
Waves survived 4/10.
Waves survived 5/10.
Waves survived 6/10.
Waves survived 7/10.
Champions defeated 5/5.
Waves survived 8/10.
Waves survived 9/10.
Waves survived 10/10.
The event updates rolled in as goblins began to die all around us, the bulk of them focused through the ritual and into the shaman. Staring on the shaman, I requested his information.
Shan-Dar Clan
Avatar of Sacrifice - Boss
Shaman - Lvl 10
This would be an even fight.
The good news was that the shaman was at the same level as us, but the bad news was that he was a boss. The bosses within the dungeon had been significantly more dangerous than the elites, and they had been lower level as well.
When the last event update triggered, the sacrificed goblins faded away. With a swing of my sword, I could tell the shield was still surrounding the podium and protecting the shaman Avatar. While I checked the shield spell, my party members grouped up behind me. Switching my old sword for my shield, I changed over to a defensive stance. I had the feeling that I would need the extra protection for the next fight.
The shaman raised his hands into the air and began to shout a repeating phrase that felt like someone was trying to dig nails into my mind. While he was screaming his litany, the shield began to flash and flicker until it slowly collapsed and wrapped around the shaman in a green glow that covered him like clothing. Unfortunately, this clothing was still transparent leaving the now younger monster exposed.
Silencing his chant, the goblin smiled at us before continuing in a calm voice, “Ahhh, my sacrifice has gained me much. So nice.”
Bonus Event!
Kill Avatar of Sacrifice 0/1.
The flashing update of the new event distracted me, and at a crucial moment. The goblin flung both his arms forward, and from his clawed hands, a cloud of insects formed and swarmed over our group. Most of the creatures were locusts and moths, but mixed into the swarm were wasps and bees. The insects landed on the exposed parts of my body and began to bite and crawl under my armor causing my skin to twitch. Robert shouted a spell that I had never heard him use before and a white glow spread around all of us, but nothing seemed to change.
Behind me, Robert shouted the bad news, “It’s a curse, my dispel poison or disease spells won’t cure it!”
While charging the shaman, I focused on the debuff to find out how troubling it was.
Debuff - Curse of the Crawlers.
15% Decreased Accuracy of Targeted Spells.
10% Decreased Accuracy of Melee.
15% Decreased Accuracy of Ranged Combat.
5 damage per six seconds.
The damage over time component was almost entirely ignorable. It wouldn’t even overcome Annie’s regeneration. The reduction in accuracy was the real purpose behind the curse. It was the fact that the debuff lacked a timer that seriously concerned me. My focus shifted away from the information panel and back to the combat when I reached the shaman. Throwing my whole weight behind my blow, I tried to drive the tip of my blade through the shaman.
The glowing shell around the shaman knocked me backward from my attack, deflecting my stab without the Avatar even stumbling. The absorption of my attack with the shield was what I expected. What I had not expected was the glowing blue eighty-five that rose above the shaman from my assault, nor the blue mana bar which appeared then dipped slightly. Watching the movement of the bar, I recovered my stance and delivered a flurry of attacks on the shaman, each dropping the goblin’s mana bar slightly. The Avatar had a decent amount of health, nearly half of mine, and it’s mana provided almost as much again to its shield. We would have to deplete the shaman’s shield before we could attack him and reduce his health.
My gawking came at a cost, I failed to notice the shaman winding up for a two-handed strike and the attack landed across my face. If I had been slightly further from the goblin, the blade tip would have cut across my face, as it was I took the weighted end across my shoulder and temple. The pop of my shoulder snapping out of the socket, and the corresponding temporary stun, left me seeing stars and ducks. Before the stun could end, my world turned into a fiery inferno as Annie delivered a fireball practically across the back of my head. Unfortunately, her lack of accuracy had my body blocking much of the fireball’s concussive force. While it only did minimal damage to the shaman’s shield, it bought me enough time to regain my focus.
Emma was not idle during my attack, she had sent her goblin skeleton around behind the shaman and had it attack while the blast was incoming. I nearly cheered when the boney pet jumped to tackle the shaman. The pet’s damage was minor, but its ability to act as a distraction, and crude disablement was a welcome addition to the team. My cheer choked in my throat as the shaman spun around and smacked the skeleton away with his staff before it could tangle the Avatar in a boney hug. I felt the heat rise up my cheeks when I realized that I had failed to use my taunt skill when I had been close. The shaman’s attire, or lack thereof, and the goblin’s unique abilities, had so distracted me that I had failed to perform my most basic and vital of jobs.
