Heralds- The Proving Grounds, page 15
Sounds of skeletons voices cut short and bones breaking carried over the top of the ruin. They were fighting at the door. Skeletons about her shifted to move that way, always trying to press around the sides… but there were far to many. Most of them were just stuck.
“Can you hit right there?” The man on the wall again. He must be a mage of some sort to teleport around.
“Probably. Ready when you are.” The sound of feet shuffling about above her. The pair on the wall planning something.
“Not getting any happier with this idea. But there’s no alternative, so I can’t really argue.”
Skeletons burst apart well off to Jen’s right in the “gap” between ruins that was presently quite full of undead. There was a momentary space left as what looked to be a shining black sword stood out of the dirt. Every skeleton it had touched was dead… simply reduced to shards and dust.
Her own sword had some power over undead, but it wasn’t a constant thing. Did he have a relic, too?
Black smoke appeared in the gap. Two figures standing there a moment as the smoke swirled before it built up again. When it dissipated there was no one in the gap, aside from skeletons pressing in to fill the space. Black smoke had appeared on the next ruin over, closer to the center. Tobin stood up there with the man from the top of the wall.
Jen pressed herself back against the stone ruin as much as she could, and ducked down a bit to hide behind skeletons just in case… if they looked this way…
There was the sound of climbing again, leather and rock scraping behind her.
“Oh what the hell?” A new deep voice.
“You know, that might actually work out.” A much higher voice. It sounded like a woman. She sighed, her voice now heading into the room instead of out. “I can’t leave you alone for five seconds.” It sounded like a spell, a high pitched whirring sound.
The man Jen had heard before grumbled. “My apologies. I’ll try to approach death’s door less often.”
A new voice, another woman. She was down in the building. “I hope they do something soon.”
“We can handle it. We have to.”
Jen frowned. None of this sounded much like a group of immortals chatting about the inconvenience of this fight. Was Tobin the only immortal one here?
And he had left. The four people here were going to have to fend for themselves… and there was no end to the skeletons. More seemed to be piling in all the time.
The sounds of combat and spell casting from within never seemed to end. They slowed a few times… but it would always start up again.
Skeletons filed around the building. They never seemed to stop either. An ineffable tide of walking bones.
The other two had left only a minute or two before… but things had only gotten worse here.
Jen held her sword high. No one inside was going to see the light, and she needed her arms free… she had to know for sure.
She swung the sword straight down, blade sweeping through two skeletons just in front of her.
They broke apart into shards and dust, gentle sighs the only sound they made.
She held the sword out and opened her inventory looking for her shield… but none of the others took notice. A few filed closer to close the gap, but even the skeleton now standing uncomfortably close was looking off to the right and trying to move on by toward the front door.
Well, that was good news. She leveled her sword and swung repeatedly. Skeletons fell apart with each swing. None of them seemed to be strong individually… it was all about the overwhelming force of the mass of them.
A few might have looked toward her… but it might have been her imagination. Just walking in her general direction, perhaps. None raised a hand against her.
She worked her way around the building, keeping it to her left and circling the opposite side that Tobin and the other guy had left from. Less attention in the dark over here, though the sound of fighting meant the door might be closer to this side on the front.
No matter. The sound of constant swinging and bashing covered her own swings. She worked to thin the number of skeletons pressing toward the door… it was all she could hope to do without revealing herself to those within.
Sam was right, strangers showing up out of the blue? Suspicious. Especially with something like this going on. How could she have gotten so close without dying? Well, because the skeletons think I’m super cool, sir.
Yeah, no. That wouldn’t fly.
Green and white light caught her eye. There was a considerable crack in the wall climbing along besides a blocked window, not enough to be dangerous but she could see inside a bit. A tall bearded man was holding the doorway. His sword and shield left blue trails when he attacked. A paladin like her, then.
A dark skinned man with a bow was perched on the top of the wall, the building open to the sky. He was firing down into the crowd outside the door, trying to thin them.
Behind the paladin was a woman with fiery red hair in heavy armor. She seemed to be reserving her mana for healing the paladin, as white washed over him from time to time. She had a serious looking hammer.
Beside her was a blond woman in leather armor. Twigs stuck out of her hair in places. A silly looking leather hat ruined any dangerous vibe she might have been going for. Her spell casts were green when they hit the paladin, though she spent a lot more timing throwing fire out into the crowd beyond the door. A druid.
Sam had said they were healer heavy, but that meant that Tobin, a barbarian, had left with someone that couldn’t heal. She didn’t know of any class that could teleport and heal. That did kind of confirm he wasn’t concerned about dying… but these people seemed quite concerned with it.
Would Hank be? He was trying to keep the event running, so letting the other side die to a broken event this early probably wasn’t ideal. This was Tobin’s party, they were probably important in some capacity. Family? Friends? Didn’t matter.
The man up on the wall flinched and gave a short yell. Jen shifted against the wall to get a better look up at him. There was a rusty ancient looking knife sticking out of his arm.
“Damn it.”
Both healers below were casting on the paladin tanking the door. The light washing over him was a pulsating mixture of green and white. The paladin bashed a skeleton back with his shield, knocking a few others down as bits of it fell backward.
They couldn’t lose this early. That would screw everything up.
She tried to keep a steady eye on the man long enough to target him.
Amos. Ranger. Level nineteen.
His health was low. Very low. Approaching ten percent.
She lifted her left hand in the healing gesture, not entirely sure if it would work at all. She wasn’t hostile towards them, even if the skeletons weren’t hostile towards her. A strange circle.
Blue light washed over him briefly. His health climbed to a bit over thirty percent. He must not have been investing much into stamina.
He let out a relieved sigh. “Thanks, Paul. But you should probably be managing your mana more carefully.”
The paladin at the door grunted. “Eh? I’ve got things handled.”
Jen sighed and turned back to the skeletons.
15
A few minutes later her arms were getting tired. She had been swinging the sword like a crazy person, but the skeletons seemed a bit thinner. Well, thinned out. They were just as thin as ever.
Ah, skeleton humor.
Jen needed all the happy thoughts she could find right now.
She’d had to duck down a few times and sneak around to the back of the building as she got close to leveling. The sound wouldn’t mean much here among the din, not to those who were not grouped with her, but the light show was hard to miss even though a crack in the wall. She hoped it was contained, or that those inside were too preoccupied to notice.
She was level eighteen now. Almost on par with these people. Many a skeleton had fallen to her mighty blade… which it actually kinda was. Hell, it was probably wasted on something like this. It was meant to shake the foundations of the world… or, you know, sweep up some trash skeletons she could probably kill with a punch. Whatever came first.
The people inside didn’t refer to each other by character names, so they must have already known each other pretty well. The paladin was Paul, the ranger was Jerry (though he had a habit of correcting them and using his in game name, and they had a habit of ignoring him), the cleric was Claire, and the druid was Jesse. She also heard them refer to Toby and Tim. If Tobin was Toby he was just about as creative as Jen when it came to names.
The party kept their cool for the most part. Jen threw a few more heals in when no one was paying much attention. Paul got credit but he was too preoccupied to question it, and fortunately no one ever specifically mentioned him healing. He must have just assumed he’d taken down a troublesome skeleton or something.
Jen had primarily been healing the druid. She was kind of reckless. She’d climbed up on the walls with the ranger to try and rain fire down, which had earned her several retaliatory hits.
One of the perks of being a Herald was bottomless resources so she didn’t have any trouble healing, even if each cast didn’t come close to what a cleric could do. Everyone else seemed to be carefully managing their resources though.
No one here was like her. It made her feel… responsible for them, somehow. She had power they didn’t. She could help them and bad things were likely to happen if she didn’t.
She lost track of how long all this had been going on… her arms were a bit sore from swinging at skeletons, but they just kept on coming. The jerks. She might just call it a night after all this…
A bright flash of green erupted from the center of the buildings, washed over her, and continued out past the ruins.
All of the skeletons fell apart where they stood. The racket of hundreds, thousands of bones bouncing around… was certainly a thing. Like someone crashed a semi trailer full of bamboo.
“What… what just happened?” Jesse was the first one to speak. No real surprise. She tended to talk more than the others.
Paul’s voice let out a heavy sigh. “They completed the event.” His movements were visibly stiff as he stood up straight and stretched his neck.
Jen could relate… the headset was starting to feel heavy.
He wasn’t wrong, either. A window popped up in front of her. “The Cursed Valley: Rank 2 - Complete!”
It offered her a helmet.
She heard the gong of leveling behind her and mashed the accept button. She wasn’t sure the experience would be enough to level her… but she wanted the sound to be covered if it did. There was no longer any other sound to cover it.
She hit level nineteen. The gong sound faded away, but a few others were still echoing away. A new helmet was lying on the ground in front of her. She stuffed it into her inventory… silly to leave evidence.
Whew.
“Come on,” Claire, the cleric. “Let’s see if they need a hand.”
“I can see their health bars. They’re okay.” Jesse could be heard climbing down from the wall. Or, some scraping as she worked at it. The loud thump probably wasn’t a good sign.
“I’m honestly surprised we’re okay. They didn’t have the benefit of multiple healers, and there’s the other groups to consider.”
“She’s right. Lets go.” Paul’s voice was steady. He didn’t sound as flustered as the others despite being the one at the door the entire time. Tanking must have been normal for him.
Bones could be heard moving and crunching as they filed out. Jen tried not to move, her back against the wall. They had no reason to turn right at the door when left lead them toward the center, where Toby and Tim had gone… but it was possible and that would be a strange conversation.
She was still and quiet until she couldn’t hear them anymore. A sigh escaped her lips. “Not exactly good times…”
Her interface appeared with a gesture. Sam and Poe were still out there, but that wasn’t terribly surprising. Immortal and all that. If they had been seen was another matter.
She tapped on the keyboard, sending to the Herald channel.
Jeneve: All done? We should probably get out of here before they see us, yeah?
It was a harrowing few moments while she waited for a response. Distant voices were saying something she couldn’t make out.
Samara: Already gone.
Poe: Back on the island.
Jen didn’t need to hear more. She hit her own recall button.
The calm island shore greeted her once more. It was quickly becoming her favorite place in the game, barely able to see it at night or not. Lights from the center made it easy to find her way once more.
Sam and Poe were waiting at the buildings, and Bulorn and Kail had shown up in the meantime.
The monk bowed his head. “Master Hank should be along shortly. He was here a moment ago, but had an errand to run. He seemed quite interested in the event you were taking part in.”
Poe seated himself against a wall and lowered his head. “Did my best. Didn’t mean to.”
Sam rolled her eyes.
Jen gave a nod to the Bulorn and Kail, though she turned her eyes to Sam. “Did you guys keep from being seen?”
“One guy might have seen me, but the skeletons got him. He was overextended. His group couldn’t get to him in time.”
Jen frowned. Clearly not one of their Heralds then, but still. “You couldn’t help him?”
“Uh, rogue?” Sam raised an eyebrow. “I could help him along to the grave, but I can’t prevent him from going, no. Besides, it ended well enough.”
“I suppose so. Didn’t see much myself. Skeletons. Did some sneaky healing.”
“Easier on your end, then. I had to help him,” she gestured towards Poe, “get to the center of all that mess and try and put a stop to it. The skeletons ignored us, but the players trying to take those skeletons out got a little closer than I liked. I swear Tobin’s black sword almost hit me twice while we were weaving through the skeletons.”
“I’d recommend avoiding that.” Hank appeared in the middle of the open area. “It’s no simple weapon, quite capable of killing your characters. Though you’d probably just return to the beach.”
“Probably?” Sam’s brow furrowed.
“We never tested it. I can’t say for sure it won’t lock you out. It’s unlikely, but possible. 50 / 50 maybe?”
“Sounds bad to me.”
Bulorn scoffed. “I’ll still fight him when the time comes.”
Hank shrugged. “Regardless, Tobin’s sword is at least working as intended. Tell me about this… event.”
Poe wasn’t very forthcoming. Jen explained it as Poe had explained it to her. An accident no one could have seen coming.
Hank wore a frown as he rubbed at his chin. “That doesn’t sound right… seems we might have crossed a wire or two. If your abilities are greater than intended, I’d ask you to refrain from abusing that. We don’t want people thinking the game is broken.”
Poe shook his head and muttered. “It is broken. I killed those people.”
Hank shrugged. “Not exactly a bad thing for our side, really. Besides, learning experience. You know to avoid events, or at least avoid trying to summon minions into active ones.”
His eyes were never visible… but Poe’s hood turned up a bit. “Not a bad thing?” His voice was harsher than Jen had ever heard it. “I just took away the game for those people. Wasted their time and effort. If I was in their place, I’d be on the phone right now getting a refund. This whole event is stupid.”
He vanished a moment later, his name reading offline in the friends menu.
Hank arched an eyebrow.
Sam shook her head. “Dramatic much? Things are fine. We’ve got this. If he wants to be a petulant child, let him. We can handle the mission without him. Hell, we could have let the skeletons have them tonight.”
“It’s a bit early yet… but the longer this goes on, the more chances you’ll get. Feel free to try tomorrow, though I doubt you’ll get near him for a few days yet. Tobin has a great deal of support. If you don’t get him tomorrow, so much the better. Dragging it out a few days only benefits the company for now.”
Jen could see the look on Bulorn’s face shift, and his fingers strike the open air. He had a town of questionable people at his beck and call now. He intended to try as soon as possible. Sam’s typical aloof demeanor had shifted some as well. They both probably already had plans ready to set into motion.
Kail was harder to read, and Annabelle still hadn’t appeared tonight. It was unlikely Poe would take part when, or if he returned.
If Jen never ran into Tobin again, she would be perfectly happy.
Hank nodded a few times, his eyes taking in invisible screens around him. “Alright kids, crisis averted. I’ll try to be a bit more punctual in the future. Sometimes, though, work comes first. Apologies.”
“No big.” Sam shrugged. “Less enemies. I call this a win.”
“Indeed.” Hank vanished.
Bulorn held up a hand. “How did you find Tobin?”
Sam narrowed her eyes. The time to keep secrets had apparently come.
Jen rolled her eyes. “Their leveling group is chasing events for the sake of expediency. They are trying to level an entire raid group, most of which won’t have the Heralds experience share system going for them. They send out scouts to find events and relay the locations back to the groups.”
Sam’s narrowed gaze turned on Jen. Her eyes were barely open and her eyebrows were drawn low.
Jen ignored her.
Bulorn was nodding. “They’re often seen at the Morblina ruins. The place is rebuilding. We can assume it’s their base of operations.” He typed some more and nodded at nothing. “Right. My people will scout that area first thing tomorrow, leave only the biggest event they can find to lure them in. Then we’ll let them tire themselves out on it and roll in.”
Kail frowned. “Hardly sporting.”
“Trying to win, man. ‘Sporting’ doesn’t factor in.”
