Age of Victoria, page 22
Your job is to anger him and take the abuse he delivers, not to kill him. Trust your team.
Still kneeling on the ground from the stun, I triggered my taunt skill. I thought that I had grown immune to the crudities of my skill, that I had adjusted to the words it used. I was wrong. Perhaps it was the Colonel’s recent rebuke and surprise at my use of the skill. Maybe it was the fact that the goblin was still naked and I was near eye level with a part of his anatomy I had only heard tell of from the ladies at tea, but whatever was the direct cause, this taunt was more embarrassing than ever. The goblin seemed to find my crudity just as surprising because for a brief moment the battle became silent, my party did not cast, the goblin did not chant, and the skeleton stood with its jaw hanging open.
Ignoring the pause in the battle, I rose with a roar and slammed the edge of my shield into the goblin’s chin and grinned at the blue damage numbers bursting from his shielding. My attack seemed to draw everyone back into the combat, and the noise returned to its previous levels. Sadly, the goblin recovered quickly from my attack, and he shouted a word of power as he swirled his bladed staff around. The new spell had a red glow appearing on all of us, and I ducked behind my shield as I focused on the debuff for a moment.
Debuff - Curse of Malaise.
5% Decreased Strength.
10% Decreased Attack Speed.
7 damage per six seconds.
This debuff was just as debilitating as the previous one, the damage was slightly more concerning because it combined with the debuff earlier, but the reduction in attack speed and the loss of my damage was a worry.
“Ah! Thank you for the sacrifice! Every little bit given, helps,” the goblin said as he smiled in my face.
When I glanced up, I noticed that the goblin’s mana bar had regained a significant amount; the debuff also recovered mana for the Avatar. That was a powerful capability and made this opponent far more dangerous than we had initially expected, but there was little we could do. We had no choice but to continue the attack and keep ahead of the goblin’s spells.
Chapter 33
As the fight progressed, I became less worried about dying to the shaman and more concerned about not being able to kill him. We had been fighting the shaman for two minutes and had only removed a quarter of the shaman’s mana shield. Two minutes is an eternity in a battle. While we had suffered multiple debuffs, each without a timer, none of them did severe damage. The little damage they did was quickly negated by Robert’s weak group heal. The only spell the goblin had which did serious injury was a poison bolt type spell which he seemed to reserve for me alone. Luckily, Robert had learned the words to the goblin’s poison spell, and when he heard it, he began casting his cure poison spell. The countenance of the shaman when the poison bolt was cured directly upon impact left me laughing in the green monsters face.
Genuine laughter at a monster’s attack was nearly as useful as my taunt skill.
My laughter choked off as the shaman sprayed out gas from his mouth and directly into my own.
Debuff - Curse of Shortened Breath.
15% Increased Cast Time of Spoken Spells
10% Reduced Agility
5% Decreased Accuracy of Melee
3 damage per six seconds.
“Gah! Don’t breath, uggh…any of that in!” the curse was well named, every sentence was a struggle, and the feeling of a massive beast standing on my chest was intolerable. The only real luck was that out of everyone, I was the target of this curse. Having problems using my warcry was a minor concern compared to slow heals or fireballs.
While I wasn’t a caster, I had been paying attention to my party and how their spells worked. Annie’s spells were big hitters, cost a lot of mana, and were blazing fast to cast. If she wanted to, she could pull attention to herself in short order since she did both the most damage per spell and could throw them the fastest. Emma’s spells, on the other hand, were mana efficient, had a medium casting speed, and came with a unique utility like self-healing. Robert’s, on the other hand, were either long casting and massively efficient, or fast casting and very expensive.
Why each class had such a difference in their spells was beyond me. Magic seemed to be wildly different for each class. Annie had mostly silently cast spells, requiring only a hand gesture in most cases. Emma had a mix of silent and spoken spells, while Robert had almost entirely spoken spells. There seemed to be no rhyme nor reason to the differences.
My musings on classes and the nature of spells almost cost me a punctured neck, the goblin Avatar having no qualms with using his bladed staff for melee combat instead of spell casting. Luckily, I was using my defensive stance, and I had been subconsciously following the cues, and it was all that saved me. Focusing back on the combat I triggered my taunt skill. The raspy wheezing taunt this time was not nearly as effective. It’s hard to claim that your enemy is beneath you when you sound like a chimney sweep.
After I used my taunt, Annie changed spells. I had become used to the concussive blasts of fireballs, so the sudden shift to the blue-white flash of lightning and the roar of thunder disrupted the flow of my attacks for a moment. To my surprise, some of the electricity made it through the shield and sparked against the shaman! His life dipped only for a moment before more of the shield drained away, and his life rose, but this was the most significant shift we had seen in the fight.
After glancing down at the soot-stained section of his chest that had been struck by the lightning spell, the shaman looked to Annie and prepared too cast. This spell had a long windup involving multiple hand motions and a guttural incantation. This was new behavior, and if this new world had taught me anything, it was that new was bad.
Gasping through my debuff, I tried to shout to Annie, “Get…behind…cover!”
My gasping and choking were so disjointed that Annie couldn’t understand me. I tried to use the chat system, but I was having trouble focusing on it through the feeling of choking and the need to continue wailing on the shaman’s shield. When the shaman finished his spell, a glowing green orb flew from his hands and towards my sister. I tried to interpose my body and brace with my shield, but the spell passed through me as if I were immaterial.
When the orb impacted on my sister, a figure made out of sticks and plants formed. The semi-transparent green form jabbed its root-like hands into Annie’s body. My sister arched her back and screamed in pain before she fell to one knee. When she raised her head she yelled and threw a new lightning bolt at the shaman. In the party window, Annie’s health didn’t drop, but her mana was plummeting. The wooden monster behind her was siphoning her mana away, but it didn’t appear to be transferring it to the shaman.
I wasn’t able to check the status of the translucent creature which was engulfing Annie, but I could see the debuff on my sister.
Debuff - Curse of the Green Man.
50% of Drained Mana transferred to Green Man as Health.
10% Mana Drain per six seconds.
Annie caught my eye before she began casting lightning blast after lightning blast into the shaman. Her mana was draining at an astounding rate. After the fourth lightning impact, the shaman tried to turn away from me and towards my sister. Most of my effort was in blocking, I was trying to stop the shaman’s charge towards Annie. I was bashing my shield into the shaman and trying to push him from the side and from the front, I didn’t dare get between Annie and the shaman entirely. While I wouldn’t suffer damage from Annie’s lightning, I couldn’t afford to stop the electricity from impacting on the Avatar’s shield.
Along with the impact from Annie’s lightning, I had disrupted the shaman’s charge enough to keep him a few meters away from my sister. Finally, Annie’s mana ran dry, and the green man removed his translucent roots from my sister’s body. Standing tall behind my sister, the tree-like green man slowly started to resolve into a solid form.
Emma noticed the transformation and charged with her skeleton pet. Her skeleton cackled as it raked its boney hand down the bark of the green man. The new enemy seemed to be frozen in distraction, its eyes pinched shut in its wooden face as it pulled its hunched form fully upright. When it snapped its eyes open, they were solid glowing green. Annie was not idle as Emma’s skeleton attacked. The moment she felt the roots slither out of her body, she ran towards Robert.
Emma shouted to me as I was focused on keeping the Avatar away from Annie, “I’ll keep him focused on me, keep on the Avatar!”
Without turning my head, I nodded and continued bashing at the shaman. My only focus was keeping him away from Annie. Our damage against the shaman had dropped to almost nothing, and he was starting to regain mana, but we had to focus on keeping ourselves alive before we could worry about killing him. This battle had gone on so long that I was carefully balancing the stamina I had available as if it was my mana. Until this fight, my Warcry - Stamina skill had allowed me more than enough stamina regeneration to handle the short bursts of combat. With my focus on the shaman, my stamina, my foot placement, the few attacks the shaman made against me, as well where my family was, all of it had me stretched to my mental limits.
I nearly cried out in joy when my taunt skill finally recovered, and my stamina inched up enough for me to use it. The insult about the shaman’s little wooden man barely registered on my consciousness compared to the sudden blows the shaman was throwing my way. Annie was standing somewhere behind me, precisely where wasn’t clear, but the shaman had been focused her way. In front of me was Emma, running in circles with the green man chasing her, her skeleton smacking away from behind it. Giddy from getting the fight back under control, I couldn’t help but imagine Emma playing a game of Ring around the Rosie with the green man.
By the time Emma had ended the green man, the shaman regained half of his mana. With Annie blasting him before we had reduced him to only a quarter left, but now we were back to halfway. My frustration was short lived as Annie began to cast her lightning spell again. While Emma had been running away and chasing the green man with her skeleton and I had been bashing at the shaman’s shield, Annie had been biding her time and recovering her mana. Robert’s mana had dipped low at one point, but my defensive posture and the green man being killed at range had given him time to regain it as well.
“We can do this! We have him!” Robert shouted from behind me.
Robert’s excitement buoyed my flagging confidence, and I carefully began to weave strikes into my defensive movements. I erred on the side of caution, but I needed to retain the Avatar’s focus while my party ended the threat. When the mana shield ended, a bright flash of blue light rippled outwards throwing me away from the Avatar. The naked shaman raised his hands into the air as his body started to distort and bulge. Annie’s lightning bounced away from the shaman without damage. All we could do was watch and conserve our stamina and mana as the Avatar grew in size to look down on Robert. When the distortions ended, the Avatar’s life had increased by thirty percent. The goblin was hunched over and breathing deeply after his growth.
Dashing towards the now oversized Avatar, I slammed my shield into the distorted goblin’s chest. The stumbling goblin tried to reach over my shield with an overlong arm, the other clutching at his bladed staff to recover his footing. The moment the goblin’s life dipped, proving that it was no longer capable of deflecting attacks like during its growth spurt, I triggered my taunt skill. To my surprise, instead of grinning a nasty smile at me as he had before, this new monster roared in rage, it’s bloodshot eyes bulging from its face. The Avatar rose up, both arms held over its head, and slammed them down on my shield as I weathered the storm of its attack. The beast seemed to have forgotten the bladed staff that the shaman had so deftly used before and instead bashed away at my shield, the stick almost comically small in its hand. After the third impact, the staff broke from the abuse, though the creature failed to drop it. The monster foamed at the mouth as it continued its barrage on my shield.
The beast’s latest swing deflected at an angle off my protection, the continuous roar of rage distorted from the sound of a fireball exploding above my shield. Taking my chance during the monster’s distraction, I whipped my sword around as I held my shield above me, the impact of my blade against the creature’s leg feeling like chopping into a tree. Before I could brace my sword hand behind my shield, the monster struck me a glancing blow, the guard ricocheting off of my head from the mostly deflected attacked. While it cost me health, it could have been worse, it could have stunned me and left me unprotected from the follow-up attack.
After pounding upon my shield for what felt like an eternity, the colossal monster stopped and gasped in exhaustion, it’s body visibly steaming from its exertion. During its exhausted state I returned to chopping at the creature’s leg, all the while Annie and Emma bombarded the monster with poison and fire. Emma’s skeleton had abandoned trying to climb the oversized creatures back, it’s bulk unlikely to be slowed by the lightweight pet.
With a grunt, the monster took a step forward, and instinctively I dodged. I wasn’t sure what had clued me to the beast’s plan, but I was happy I had moved. The naked creature charged in a straight line, it’s body slipping in the blood caked grass as it tried to stop and turn around. With a grunt, the monster stepped forward again and aimed itself at me. Without waiting for the creature to begin its charge, I dodged again. The monster blurred forward until it passed my position and then drove divots into the ground as it stopped. While the creature was in a hunched position trying to turn, I took advantage and swung as hard as I could at the Avatar’s head. The impact against the skull of the enraged monster shook up my arm, but I was excited to see the now familiar stars and duck flashing around its face.
The still goblin looked befuddled as Annie’s fireball exploded against his nose, ending his life.
After looking around at the forest of dead goblins, the gigantic Avatar which was slowly shrinking, and the smell of death, I plopped onto my backside and took a moment to breathe.
Chapter 34
When I was a little girl, I remember running as hard as my short legs could carry me through the fields behind the mansion. I would pump my chubby legs as hard as I could, driving my feet into the ground, and race across the grass and up the hills. The effort of running would leave me winded and red of face, and inevitably, I would collapse to the earth. It felt to me like the stress and excitement would leak out of me and into the ground. Whatever had burdened me would pale in comparison to the strain of throwing myself against the wind. Even the pain from my exertion would be oddly pleasant.
As I lay on the ground, my elbows propped up on my knees, and head held low, I could feel none of the sweet release from exhaustion. The strain and stress of moving my body beyond its limits were forever barred from me now. This world had taken something precious, something quintessentially human, and replaced it with a crude replacement. Despite its base nature, I still looked up when the happy completion event sound rang out, and the event list updated once more with our success.
Zone Event - Siege of the Mansion! (Bonus) Completed!
The Blythe mansion has been targeted by the Shan-Dar Goblin Clan. The goblins are amassing to attack the only near human settlement, the Blythe mansion. Gathering their horde outside their Den the Shan-Dar Goblin Clan prepares to march for war! Survive the goblin horde waves and defeat the Goblin champions and Chief!
(Bonus) Defeat the Avatar of Sacrifice.
Reward: 4035 exp, per participant Class Reward.
The feeling of the gold colored four thousand experience and the subsequent level up was glorious. I felt far more from this level then I had from any before it. The increase in feeling was so much more that I looked off into the distance as I tried to catalog the differences, entirely disconnected from the world around me. I was finally brought back to myself by Emma calling for me in concern.
To my surprise, none of the others had leveled. I was the only one. In my mind, this battle would result in all of us earning our freedom. The Avatar of Sacrifice had become more than just an enemy to defeat for the safety of the mansion. Instead, he represented everything wrong and bad about this world and the way to achieve everything I wanted in it as well. I chuckled at my silliness when I realized my mistake but raised my head quickly. We still had more to do to earn the rest of the party their freedom.
“How much do the rest of you need to level?” I asked.
Annie looked up at my question. She had been staring at the chest that had appeared upon the event’s end.
“Hmm?” she distractedly responded before she stared into space for a moment and then continued, “I only need a few kills, maybe a couple of goblins? Do you think there are any other goblins in the forest?” she asked with a bit of concern.
“If not, we can keep looking and find something, even if it takes all night killing wolves we should be fine,” Robert said as he joined the group huddling over the chest.
Emma chirped up at that point, “it really shouldn’t take that many. We can probably get it before we finish walking back, we are far from the edge of the forest, after all.”
I just sat watching as they opened the chest. Taking a moment without worry or fighting, without concern for the future or expectations seemed divine.
Each of them pulled items out of the chest, and when they had all grabbed their loot, they turned to smirk back at me and then looked into the chest again. A hint of concern started to drift through my weary mind at those looks. They weren’t malicious, but they were filled with laughter. Laying back and ignoring their antics sounded terrific, but it wouldn’t help them reach level ten, nor would it end their incessant tittering. Even Robert was trying to hold back his laugh. I could feel a sense of dread growing.
