Enter System, page 7
part #1 of Natural Laws Apocalypse Series
The office complex had a single goblin in it. Amusingly enough it was trapped in the principal's office, unable to open the door. So when they heard noise in the room and opened the door, the goblin was sitting in the principal's chair, spinning around in circles.
They killed the goblin, Jeff snickering as they did so, then cleared the rest of the office, finding nothing else living in there.
“Okay, basement or gym?” Marc asked. “I'm pretty sure we'll have to fight in the gym, but the basement?”
He shrugged.
“Let's all make sure we're fully regenerated, then head for the gym. Get the fight we know we'll have out of the way, then we can scout the basement, maybe send Jeff down there if he wants to practice his Stealth some more,” Felicia said.
Jeff rolled his eyes.
“Sure, I can check it out. Maybe I'll take a nap if that comfy hiding spot is still down there,” he said.
They were sitting in the main office, just off the hallway, and Jeff was fidgeting horribly.
“I can't believe we're sitting in the office to regenerate,” he said. “The last time I was sitting here was when the principal felt the need to lecture me on blowing off my classes, even when I was getting B's or better in all of them.”
He shook his head.
“I'm going to go scout out the gym. It has those doors with the little glass panels in them so I can look through and see what's in most of the area in there.”
He stood and reached the door before anyone else managed to reply. They were just sitting there, staring at him.
“Wait,” Marc said as Jeff reached for the door. “I'm full up, how about everyone else?”
“I will be by the time we make it to the gym,” Felicia said.
“I'm good,” Rob added.
“So let's all go,” Marc said.
He cast his Arcane Armor again, knowing it would only take a minute or two to get to the gym.
Your spell, Arcane Armor, has increased in skill level (1->2).
He grinned, but didn't say anything to the rest of the group, not wanting to disrupt them now that they were on target again.
Jeff would probably be upset if it slowed us down at all, Marc thought. And I'm not sure if anyone else has leveled skills or spells up, they haven't said so if they did. So I'll just keep my mouth shut.
When they got close to the gymnasium, Jeff held up a hand.
“I wasn't kidding. Let me go scout them so we have some idea of what we're facing, okay?”
Marc nodded and the other two voiced agreement. They stopped, ducking into a pair of classroom doorways where they'd be mostly hidden by the lockers along the walls of the hallway. Jeff sort of shimmered out of sight again as he moved towards the gym. Marc could keep track of him by the shimmer even though he couldn't see the rogue clearly.
Jeff was back two minutes later, speaking in soft tones once he'd returned.
“Okay, this is worse than the others, there's about fifteen in there, three goblins and the rest hobgoblins. Looks like there might be a boss type in there as well since one of them stands a head taller than the rest.”
“How are they arranged?” Marc asked.
“Well, the bleachers are all up against the walls, so they've got most of the area open. There's a bunch of crap piled up against the far wall. It looks like they were looting, but most of it's just junk as far as I can tell. Most of the hobgoblins are in the central area, but there are two standing near each of the doors leading into the school, guarding them or something. The doors leading outside have been tied shut with ropes.”
“Well, crap, so we're just going to have to tank them out?” Rob said.
“Maybe we can draw the hobgoblins on guard duty out into the hall? Thin them out a little first.” Felicia said.
“Worth a shot,” Marc replied, “at worst they all come out into the hall, but then we'd have a limited front to fight them on that would make it easier too.”
“I grabbed those spears from the guys in the auditorium,” Rob said. “So, we can get some missile attacks in first. Me with those and Marc with his spells.”
“If you're going to tank, I got a new spell with my last level that might help, Rob,” Marc said. “It's a Phantom Shield spell. I can cast it on anyone, it tries to interpose itself between incoming attacks and the target, and it increases the armor value against anything that tries to strike the target of my spell.”
“Cool, you can toss that on all of us then,” Jeff said.
Marc shook his head.
“Fifty mana per cast and I've only got a hundred and forty max. I'm almost back to max after casting arcane armor, but even so I could only do two of us. Short duration too, four minutes plus one minute per point in the spell. So just five minutes for now. If I cast it at all it'll be on Rob since he's tanking.”
Jeff grumbled something, but quieted quickly.
“Then, pull out the guards? Swarm them? Or make a defensive line if they all follow the guards out into the hallway?” he said.
Marc nodded.
“That's the best I think we can do for the moment since I'm pretty sure that you don't want to go try to eliminate any from the middle of the gym.”
“No, but if they come out into the hallway I will,” Jeff said. “Oh, and one of them has one of those healing staff things and another is wearing feathers on his head, so...”
Marc shook his head.
“More casters, that sucks. Hey, did we get the staff from the second healer type we killed?”
Jeff nodded.
“Got it in my inventory. I had Felicia tell me how to use it and I can provide a couple of extra heals if needed. Thought about giving it to you, but figured you had better things to do with your mana.”
He's got a point, but I wish I'd known he claimed that. We're going to have to make some rules about looting, but later on, not right now, Marc thought.
“Alright then, how do we want to do this?”
“Failed Stealth,” Jeff said.
Marc cocked his head.
“I'll pretend to be in Stealth where they can see me through the door, make a loud noise to make sure they spot me, then I'll run, and hopefully they'll follow.”
“Want a spear? Then you can kite them properly,” Rob said, holding out one of the rough spears towards Jeff.
Jeff started to say something, thought better of it, and accepted the spear from Rob.
“Not that I'm liable to do more than piss them off with it. I'm decent with the sword, I got the skill for it, but a hurled weapon?”
“If you're Agility focused like you said, that might make up for not being proficient with it,” Felicia replied.
“Hey, you got a point there. So I'll go try to get those guys to follow me,” Jeff said, turning and moving down the hallway.
* * *
Marc was lost in thought as he waited. A glance through the window had shown that the sun was almost down.
So even if we manage to make a Safe Zone today, we won't be able to go tell everyone about it and invite them back here, he thought. How many more people will be lost overnight? But there's not a lot we can do about that right now, is there? If we can get the Safe Zone made, then we can go out and start saving some others, I hope. So for now, we're doing what we can.
His train of thought was interrupted by the sound of something metallic rattling across the floor down the hallway in the direction that Jeff went. A moment later, he heard the gym door slam open and the sound of footsteps running.
Hobgoblin grunts carried down the corridor to him and, a moment later, a scream from the same deep voice followed. Then the running footsteps increased and a moment later Jeff came barreling around the corner in front of them.
“Rob, let's set up,” Marc said, moving into position a few feet from the corner.
As Rob approached him, Marc cast his new Phantom Shield spell on him and a shimmering patch of air formed in front of the tank.
“Brace your pilum like this,” Marc said.
He was crouched down, bracing his pilum under his foot again, hiding behind his shield. Rob quickly tried to duplicate the position, just as the first of the hobgoblin guards came rushing around the corner. He skidded on the floor, sliding across the hallway, and Rob came up out of his braced position, lunging forward to score a solid hit on the sliding hobgoblin.
The following hobgoblin came around the corner then, at a slower speed, probably having learned from the first one. This one was already wounded, a hole in its arm showing where Jeff had hurled the spear somewhat accurately.
It was focusing on not sliding, so when Marc slid himself across the floor a ways, keeping his pilum braced, it was slow to react to the signs of an enemy and ended up skewering itself. The blow, even with the previous wound, wasn't enough to kill it, but when Marc pulled the pilum out and struck again as the guard was swinging its club, that blow was enough to kill it. Marc caught the return blow on his shield, pushing it to the side.
Rob was in melee with the other hobgoblin, thrusting repeatedly to keep it at bay and out of range of its club, so Marc simply launched himself, the three steps he had to take to reach it letting him build up some steam before hitting it with his shield and sending it stumbling back into the wall it had struck earlier.
Rob reacted quickly, getting another stab in on the hobgoblin while it tried to regain its balance. A moment later Marc struck as well and the hobgoblin went down and stayed down.
Rob shimmered in green light for a moment and Marc realized that he must've been struck by his opponent before Marc's shield bash took the hobgoblin off guard.
“Just the two?” Felicia asked.
Jeff's voice answered from a little farther down the hall.
“That was all I saw, should we try it again with the other guards?”
“Only if we go the long way around,” Marc said. “They might see us if we walk down that hall.”
“Do we have the time? Will they react to the guards leaving and staying gone?” Jeff asked.
Marc just shrugged.
“Let's double time it. I think we're all pretty good on stamina, right? Let's loot these guys and go.”
He leaned over and looted each of the corpses before heading down the hallway that would eventually allow them to come up on the gymnasium from the other side.
* * *
By the time they made it around to the other gymnasium doors, or at least just around a corner from them, Marc could see that it was totally dark outside and gave up any hope of helping anyone else tonight.
“Same thing?” Jeff asked.
Rob handed him another spear.
“Worked last time, why not?” Rob said.
Jeff shook his head, then took the spear and headed off down the corridor. This time Marc wasn't lost in his thoughts, he was eager to get the fight over with so they could create a Safe Zone. He knew they still had the basement to clear, but hoped that that would go more quickly than this. He'd been down there before and there weren't really any wide open, clear areas, so he expected only goblins down there, if anything.
“So, the point of that position you showed me is to lunge out of it?” Rob asked.
Marc shook his head.
“No, but that was a good move on your part. The point was to brace it and try to have your opponent run onto your weapon.”
“Oh, like horses and pikemen?” Rob asked.
“Yeah, a lot like that, Rob,” Marc answered.
Rob remembers the weirdest stuff. I told him about mounted riders and pikemen years ago for a tabletop RPG we were playing and he remembered that, but if I ask him what his last college lecture was about, he probably couldn't tell me without checking his notes, Marc thought.
Just then Jeff made his noise to attract the guards' attention. This time, Marc didn't hear the gym doors slam open, didn't hear any footsteps, either. Then he heard Jeff shouting, insulting the guards' mothers, and the sound of a fist pounding on a door.
A moment later Marc heard running footsteps, and then Jeff shouting.
“Um, guards didn't respond, so I went a step further. There's a bunch of them on my tail this time.”
Marc quickly checked his mana. It was close to full, so he put another Phantom Shield on Rob.
Didn't work well last time, but every little bit helps, he thought.
His own Arcane Armor was up, but he knew he could cast it again and reset its duration, so he did that since by his count he only had a minute or two left on the first one.
Just under seventy mana left. If I get a few points regenerating during the fight I can use three Mana Darts, he thought.
Jeff came screaming around the corner.
“Five inbound!”
He kicked off the wall to corner, then tried to stop, but ended up sliding down the hall all the way past Felicia before coming to a stop.
Rob, who was on the far side of the hallway from where the hobgoblins were approaching, pulled out one of the long spears from his inventory, sliding the pilum into his inventory as he did.
“Better bracing for more damage?” he asked.
“Yeah, I guess, why?” Marc asked.
Rob took two steps out to where he was visible to the hobgoblins racing down the corridor, then shoved the butt of the long spear against the wall behind him, holding it standing straight up in the same hand as his shield. Then he looked up at the incoming hobgoblins and flipped them off.
He quickly switched hands with the spear, crouching behind his shield so it covered him better and dropped the point of the spear towards the charging enemy.
The hobgoblins tried to stop, but quickly found out that they couldn't. Jeff had only managed to corner by kicking off the wall, and these guys were sliding straight towards Rob's spear.
Well, at least one of them will hit it, but there's four more of them, Marc thought.
He stepped forward as the first goblin slid past the corner, Rob adjusting his spear so the hobgoblin hit it with the center of his torso. Marc thrust at the next one sliding past, almost losing his pilum as the hobgoblin kept sliding after he'd stabbed it deeply. He managed to recover his pilum from the hobgoblin as it hit the one lodged completely on Rob's long spear, taking the first six inches of the spear into his chest.
Marc stepped out. The other three hobgoblins had collided with one another when they couldn't stop, sliding into the wall at speed. Rob was dropping the long spear and pulling his pilum out of his inventory again when Marc struck at the back of one of the healthy hobgoblins. He wasn't too worried about the two impaled on the spear, if they weren't dead, they were going to need to make an effort to get off the spear before they could do anything else.
Critical strike. Damage X2.
Marc grinned as he recovered his pilum from the hobgoblin's back. He'd been ready to toss a Mana Dart to finish these guys off more quickly, but the critical should help almost as much as a spell would. He thrust again, quickly, before the hobgoblins had recovered and turned to face him. The pilum sank deep into the hobgoblin's back, but he didn't get a critical on that strike.
Meanwhile he saw the effectiveness of his Phantom Shield spell. One of the hobgoblins had dropped their club, clawing at Rob and his shield, but the attack was stopped several inches in front of Rob's shield even.
Huh, I probably ought to tell the people I cast the Phantom Shield on that they should anchor their flank against something solid. Looks a lot more effective like that, Marc thought. That hobgoblin couldn't attack from one side due to the wall and the Phantom Shield was guarding Rob's other side.
Then he stopped thinking about other things and just focused on the fight. Felicia had stepped up as well, her tire iron striking into the melee. Between the three of them, they took out the remaining hobgoblins. Jeff had made it back to them and killed off the one pulling itself off the long spear. The first one that had struck the spear was dead by the time he got there and the last three had fallen rapidly to the strikes of the group.
“That sucked,” Jeff said.
“You banged on the door?” Felicia said, sounding like she wanted to shout but knew that it would be a bad idea.
“Well, they were ignoring me otherwise. They looked out, saw me, and then turned back to facing inwards,” Jeff said.
“So you went ahead and banged on the door,” Felicia said, shaking her head.
“Hey, it worked. And now all that's left in there are the little guys, the boss, and the casters,” Jeff said. “Let's go get 'em!”
* * *
“Wait,” Marc said. “Check your notifications first. If you guys were as close as you said to leveling up, you probably have now.”
Rob and Felicia's eyes unfocused. She nodded but didn't come back into focus as both of their hands started moving.
I wonder if I do that when I'm using the mental interface. I bet that's them selecting options and the like, Marc thought.
He looked over at Jeff.
“Don't look at me,” Jeff said. “I advanced and selected skills and stuff after those first two hobs from the gym.”
“Good. We have to remember to do that as soon as possible all the time. Who knows when we'll find something a lot more powerful than these. I'm betting that if we'd waited a few days, this would've been a lot harder too.”
“Maybe, depends on how fast these guys spawn,” Jeff said.
“Or how fast they level,” Marc added. “If they sent groups out hunting people or animals or whatever, they'd be getting experience as well.”
Jeff nodded.
“So, we need to clear all of it tonight then, yeah?” Jeff said.
“Only if we want a safe place to sleep. Assuming we can even make a Safe Zone just by clearing them out.”
“It's like playing a damned RPG without any of the rulebooks, doing it just by what you already know from other games,” Jeff said, looking disgusted.
“And where we can get the rules, they're obtuse and difficult to read due to the grammar,” Marc added.
Jeff snickered.
“Somehow I knew that would bother you more than the rest.”
“Hey, I've been reporting all the errors I find. I'm hoping that the reports help them reformat everything to be more comprehensible.”
They killed the goblin, Jeff snickering as they did so, then cleared the rest of the office, finding nothing else living in there.
“Okay, basement or gym?” Marc asked. “I'm pretty sure we'll have to fight in the gym, but the basement?”
He shrugged.
“Let's all make sure we're fully regenerated, then head for the gym. Get the fight we know we'll have out of the way, then we can scout the basement, maybe send Jeff down there if he wants to practice his Stealth some more,” Felicia said.
Jeff rolled his eyes.
“Sure, I can check it out. Maybe I'll take a nap if that comfy hiding spot is still down there,” he said.
They were sitting in the main office, just off the hallway, and Jeff was fidgeting horribly.
“I can't believe we're sitting in the office to regenerate,” he said. “The last time I was sitting here was when the principal felt the need to lecture me on blowing off my classes, even when I was getting B's or better in all of them.”
He shook his head.
“I'm going to go scout out the gym. It has those doors with the little glass panels in them so I can look through and see what's in most of the area in there.”
He stood and reached the door before anyone else managed to reply. They were just sitting there, staring at him.
“Wait,” Marc said as Jeff reached for the door. “I'm full up, how about everyone else?”
“I will be by the time we make it to the gym,” Felicia said.
“I'm good,” Rob added.
“So let's all go,” Marc said.
He cast his Arcane Armor again, knowing it would only take a minute or two to get to the gym.
Your spell, Arcane Armor, has increased in skill level (1->2).
He grinned, but didn't say anything to the rest of the group, not wanting to disrupt them now that they were on target again.
Jeff would probably be upset if it slowed us down at all, Marc thought. And I'm not sure if anyone else has leveled skills or spells up, they haven't said so if they did. So I'll just keep my mouth shut.
When they got close to the gymnasium, Jeff held up a hand.
“I wasn't kidding. Let me go scout them so we have some idea of what we're facing, okay?”
Marc nodded and the other two voiced agreement. They stopped, ducking into a pair of classroom doorways where they'd be mostly hidden by the lockers along the walls of the hallway. Jeff sort of shimmered out of sight again as he moved towards the gym. Marc could keep track of him by the shimmer even though he couldn't see the rogue clearly.
Jeff was back two minutes later, speaking in soft tones once he'd returned.
“Okay, this is worse than the others, there's about fifteen in there, three goblins and the rest hobgoblins. Looks like there might be a boss type in there as well since one of them stands a head taller than the rest.”
“How are they arranged?” Marc asked.
“Well, the bleachers are all up against the walls, so they've got most of the area open. There's a bunch of crap piled up against the far wall. It looks like they were looting, but most of it's just junk as far as I can tell. Most of the hobgoblins are in the central area, but there are two standing near each of the doors leading into the school, guarding them or something. The doors leading outside have been tied shut with ropes.”
“Well, crap, so we're just going to have to tank them out?” Rob said.
“Maybe we can draw the hobgoblins on guard duty out into the hall? Thin them out a little first.” Felicia said.
“Worth a shot,” Marc replied, “at worst they all come out into the hall, but then we'd have a limited front to fight them on that would make it easier too.”
“I grabbed those spears from the guys in the auditorium,” Rob said. “So, we can get some missile attacks in first. Me with those and Marc with his spells.”
“If you're going to tank, I got a new spell with my last level that might help, Rob,” Marc said. “It's a Phantom Shield spell. I can cast it on anyone, it tries to interpose itself between incoming attacks and the target, and it increases the armor value against anything that tries to strike the target of my spell.”
“Cool, you can toss that on all of us then,” Jeff said.
Marc shook his head.
“Fifty mana per cast and I've only got a hundred and forty max. I'm almost back to max after casting arcane armor, but even so I could only do two of us. Short duration too, four minutes plus one minute per point in the spell. So just five minutes for now. If I cast it at all it'll be on Rob since he's tanking.”
Jeff grumbled something, but quieted quickly.
“Then, pull out the guards? Swarm them? Or make a defensive line if they all follow the guards out into the hallway?” he said.
Marc nodded.
“That's the best I think we can do for the moment since I'm pretty sure that you don't want to go try to eliminate any from the middle of the gym.”
“No, but if they come out into the hallway I will,” Jeff said. “Oh, and one of them has one of those healing staff things and another is wearing feathers on his head, so...”
Marc shook his head.
“More casters, that sucks. Hey, did we get the staff from the second healer type we killed?”
Jeff nodded.
“Got it in my inventory. I had Felicia tell me how to use it and I can provide a couple of extra heals if needed. Thought about giving it to you, but figured you had better things to do with your mana.”
He's got a point, but I wish I'd known he claimed that. We're going to have to make some rules about looting, but later on, not right now, Marc thought.
“Alright then, how do we want to do this?”
“Failed Stealth,” Jeff said.
Marc cocked his head.
“I'll pretend to be in Stealth where they can see me through the door, make a loud noise to make sure they spot me, then I'll run, and hopefully they'll follow.”
“Want a spear? Then you can kite them properly,” Rob said, holding out one of the rough spears towards Jeff.
Jeff started to say something, thought better of it, and accepted the spear from Rob.
“Not that I'm liable to do more than piss them off with it. I'm decent with the sword, I got the skill for it, but a hurled weapon?”
“If you're Agility focused like you said, that might make up for not being proficient with it,” Felicia replied.
“Hey, you got a point there. So I'll go try to get those guys to follow me,” Jeff said, turning and moving down the hallway.
* * *
Marc was lost in thought as he waited. A glance through the window had shown that the sun was almost down.
So even if we manage to make a Safe Zone today, we won't be able to go tell everyone about it and invite them back here, he thought. How many more people will be lost overnight? But there's not a lot we can do about that right now, is there? If we can get the Safe Zone made, then we can go out and start saving some others, I hope. So for now, we're doing what we can.
His train of thought was interrupted by the sound of something metallic rattling across the floor down the hallway in the direction that Jeff went. A moment later, he heard the gym door slam open and the sound of footsteps running.
Hobgoblin grunts carried down the corridor to him and, a moment later, a scream from the same deep voice followed. Then the running footsteps increased and a moment later Jeff came barreling around the corner in front of them.
“Rob, let's set up,” Marc said, moving into position a few feet from the corner.
As Rob approached him, Marc cast his new Phantom Shield spell on him and a shimmering patch of air formed in front of the tank.
“Brace your pilum like this,” Marc said.
He was crouched down, bracing his pilum under his foot again, hiding behind his shield. Rob quickly tried to duplicate the position, just as the first of the hobgoblin guards came rushing around the corner. He skidded on the floor, sliding across the hallway, and Rob came up out of his braced position, lunging forward to score a solid hit on the sliding hobgoblin.
The following hobgoblin came around the corner then, at a slower speed, probably having learned from the first one. This one was already wounded, a hole in its arm showing where Jeff had hurled the spear somewhat accurately.
It was focusing on not sliding, so when Marc slid himself across the floor a ways, keeping his pilum braced, it was slow to react to the signs of an enemy and ended up skewering itself. The blow, even with the previous wound, wasn't enough to kill it, but when Marc pulled the pilum out and struck again as the guard was swinging its club, that blow was enough to kill it. Marc caught the return blow on his shield, pushing it to the side.
Rob was in melee with the other hobgoblin, thrusting repeatedly to keep it at bay and out of range of its club, so Marc simply launched himself, the three steps he had to take to reach it letting him build up some steam before hitting it with his shield and sending it stumbling back into the wall it had struck earlier.
Rob reacted quickly, getting another stab in on the hobgoblin while it tried to regain its balance. A moment later Marc struck as well and the hobgoblin went down and stayed down.
Rob shimmered in green light for a moment and Marc realized that he must've been struck by his opponent before Marc's shield bash took the hobgoblin off guard.
“Just the two?” Felicia asked.
Jeff's voice answered from a little farther down the hall.
“That was all I saw, should we try it again with the other guards?”
“Only if we go the long way around,” Marc said. “They might see us if we walk down that hall.”
“Do we have the time? Will they react to the guards leaving and staying gone?” Jeff asked.
Marc just shrugged.
“Let's double time it. I think we're all pretty good on stamina, right? Let's loot these guys and go.”
He leaned over and looted each of the corpses before heading down the hallway that would eventually allow them to come up on the gymnasium from the other side.
* * *
By the time they made it around to the other gymnasium doors, or at least just around a corner from them, Marc could see that it was totally dark outside and gave up any hope of helping anyone else tonight.
“Same thing?” Jeff asked.
Rob handed him another spear.
“Worked last time, why not?” Rob said.
Jeff shook his head, then took the spear and headed off down the corridor. This time Marc wasn't lost in his thoughts, he was eager to get the fight over with so they could create a Safe Zone. He knew they still had the basement to clear, but hoped that that would go more quickly than this. He'd been down there before and there weren't really any wide open, clear areas, so he expected only goblins down there, if anything.
“So, the point of that position you showed me is to lunge out of it?” Rob asked.
Marc shook his head.
“No, but that was a good move on your part. The point was to brace it and try to have your opponent run onto your weapon.”
“Oh, like horses and pikemen?” Rob asked.
“Yeah, a lot like that, Rob,” Marc answered.
Rob remembers the weirdest stuff. I told him about mounted riders and pikemen years ago for a tabletop RPG we were playing and he remembered that, but if I ask him what his last college lecture was about, he probably couldn't tell me without checking his notes, Marc thought.
Just then Jeff made his noise to attract the guards' attention. This time, Marc didn't hear the gym doors slam open, didn't hear any footsteps, either. Then he heard Jeff shouting, insulting the guards' mothers, and the sound of a fist pounding on a door.
A moment later Marc heard running footsteps, and then Jeff shouting.
“Um, guards didn't respond, so I went a step further. There's a bunch of them on my tail this time.”
Marc quickly checked his mana. It was close to full, so he put another Phantom Shield on Rob.
Didn't work well last time, but every little bit helps, he thought.
His own Arcane Armor was up, but he knew he could cast it again and reset its duration, so he did that since by his count he only had a minute or two left on the first one.
Just under seventy mana left. If I get a few points regenerating during the fight I can use three Mana Darts, he thought.
Jeff came screaming around the corner.
“Five inbound!”
He kicked off the wall to corner, then tried to stop, but ended up sliding down the hall all the way past Felicia before coming to a stop.
Rob, who was on the far side of the hallway from where the hobgoblins were approaching, pulled out one of the long spears from his inventory, sliding the pilum into his inventory as he did.
“Better bracing for more damage?” he asked.
“Yeah, I guess, why?” Marc asked.
Rob took two steps out to where he was visible to the hobgoblins racing down the corridor, then shoved the butt of the long spear against the wall behind him, holding it standing straight up in the same hand as his shield. Then he looked up at the incoming hobgoblins and flipped them off.
He quickly switched hands with the spear, crouching behind his shield so it covered him better and dropped the point of the spear towards the charging enemy.
The hobgoblins tried to stop, but quickly found out that they couldn't. Jeff had only managed to corner by kicking off the wall, and these guys were sliding straight towards Rob's spear.
Well, at least one of them will hit it, but there's four more of them, Marc thought.
He stepped forward as the first goblin slid past the corner, Rob adjusting his spear so the hobgoblin hit it with the center of his torso. Marc thrust at the next one sliding past, almost losing his pilum as the hobgoblin kept sliding after he'd stabbed it deeply. He managed to recover his pilum from the hobgoblin as it hit the one lodged completely on Rob's long spear, taking the first six inches of the spear into his chest.
Marc stepped out. The other three hobgoblins had collided with one another when they couldn't stop, sliding into the wall at speed. Rob was dropping the long spear and pulling his pilum out of his inventory again when Marc struck at the back of one of the healthy hobgoblins. He wasn't too worried about the two impaled on the spear, if they weren't dead, they were going to need to make an effort to get off the spear before they could do anything else.
Critical strike. Damage X2.
Marc grinned as he recovered his pilum from the hobgoblin's back. He'd been ready to toss a Mana Dart to finish these guys off more quickly, but the critical should help almost as much as a spell would. He thrust again, quickly, before the hobgoblins had recovered and turned to face him. The pilum sank deep into the hobgoblin's back, but he didn't get a critical on that strike.
Meanwhile he saw the effectiveness of his Phantom Shield spell. One of the hobgoblins had dropped their club, clawing at Rob and his shield, but the attack was stopped several inches in front of Rob's shield even.
Huh, I probably ought to tell the people I cast the Phantom Shield on that they should anchor their flank against something solid. Looks a lot more effective like that, Marc thought. That hobgoblin couldn't attack from one side due to the wall and the Phantom Shield was guarding Rob's other side.
Then he stopped thinking about other things and just focused on the fight. Felicia had stepped up as well, her tire iron striking into the melee. Between the three of them, they took out the remaining hobgoblins. Jeff had made it back to them and killed off the one pulling itself off the long spear. The first one that had struck the spear was dead by the time he got there and the last three had fallen rapidly to the strikes of the group.
“That sucked,” Jeff said.
“You banged on the door?” Felicia said, sounding like she wanted to shout but knew that it would be a bad idea.
“Well, they were ignoring me otherwise. They looked out, saw me, and then turned back to facing inwards,” Jeff said.
“So you went ahead and banged on the door,” Felicia said, shaking her head.
“Hey, it worked. And now all that's left in there are the little guys, the boss, and the casters,” Jeff said. “Let's go get 'em!”
* * *
“Wait,” Marc said. “Check your notifications first. If you guys were as close as you said to leveling up, you probably have now.”
Rob and Felicia's eyes unfocused. She nodded but didn't come back into focus as both of their hands started moving.
I wonder if I do that when I'm using the mental interface. I bet that's them selecting options and the like, Marc thought.
He looked over at Jeff.
“Don't look at me,” Jeff said. “I advanced and selected skills and stuff after those first two hobs from the gym.”
“Good. We have to remember to do that as soon as possible all the time. Who knows when we'll find something a lot more powerful than these. I'm betting that if we'd waited a few days, this would've been a lot harder too.”
“Maybe, depends on how fast these guys spawn,” Jeff said.
“Or how fast they level,” Marc added. “If they sent groups out hunting people or animals or whatever, they'd be getting experience as well.”
Jeff nodded.
“So, we need to clear all of it tonight then, yeah?” Jeff said.
“Only if we want a safe place to sleep. Assuming we can even make a Safe Zone just by clearing them out.”
“It's like playing a damned RPG without any of the rulebooks, doing it just by what you already know from other games,” Jeff said, looking disgusted.
“And where we can get the rules, they're obtuse and difficult to read due to the grammar,” Marc added.
Jeff snickered.
“Somehow I knew that would bother you more than the rest.”
“Hey, I've been reporting all the errors I find. I'm hoping that the reports help them reformat everything to be more comprehensible.”
