Avalon Rebirth (9 page)

“So you're just going to keep casting destruction spells until we clear them out?” Erika asked.

“Or at least until they have no cover,” Darin said. “Taji, keep an eye on the tunnel so something doesn't spawn and sneak up on us.”

Leah sighted in another arrow and cast Fire Blast on it. This time, with most of the cover on the ceiling destroyed, the explosion reached a long way. Dozens of air golems burst into flame and dropped to the bottom of the chamber like roman candles.

“Looks like that's enough for now,” she said. “You three can clean up.”

Darin nodded. “Taji, with me. Erika, follow behind and guard our backs. And Leah, if you could help that'd be good too. We still can't hit anything that's flying above us.”

“Huh, what makes you think that I can manage that? Trying to shoot things with D-rank skills is hard,” Leah replied. She nocked an arrow anyhow and followed them in.

An air golem swooped low and tried to make an attack with its talons. Leah brought her bow up to make a quick shot, but she never got the chance to even fire. Taji took a swipe with his axe and caught the monster square in the body, smashing it with one hard blow.

“I'm going up with them,” Erika said, just before she cast Sky Walk. She leaped onto the platforms and took out a pair of golems with precise strikes.

There were stragglers, but at this point the room was essentially cleared. A few random grunts weren't going to be enough to stop them.

Leah felt like she had taken the cheap route, but she didn't feel guilty about it at all. So far the Cave of Origin had been nothing but trouble, with no easy opponents for them to face. Hordes of tough monsters, traps, and they weren't even finished yet. If the golem theme held out they still had a set of water creatures to deal with. And after that…

After that they still had to face the worst challenge of the dungeon, the final bosses. Right now she had a feeling they'd end up facing one of the stronger teams.

The next corridor was far shorter than the other ones, and opened up into yet another chamber. Water flowed out of spouts embedded in the walls, forming a large pool on the cave floor. There was one narrow route across, meandering and weaving in all different directions. Leah looked down into the water to see how deep it might be, but the bottom wasn't visible.

“Sure looks like a lovely spot for an ambush,” Taji commented.

“Seems like it,” Darin said. “And it sure seems like we have the worst luck. There's no dodging this.”

“What about if I sky-walked over to the other side?” Erika asked.

“That'd be all well and good if we knew the room was safe, but it's not. I'm almost certain that there's water golems in here somewhere,” Taji said. “And then you're on the other side cut off from the rest of us.”

“Have to cross this place somehow,” Darin said.

Leah thought for a moment. “Well, we could be careful. Go slow and try to make sure we're well-guarded wherever we go.”

“Or?”

“Or we just run through and smash everything that gets in our way,” she said. “At this point I'm willing to risk it, because this is getting annoying.”

She knew very well that she was being impulsive. Right now they were almost all the way through the dungeon, and dying now meant starting over from the very beginning along with losing one of their precious chances to make the next tournament.

But being able to adapt and take calculated risks was one of the most important skills in the tournaments, especially in the higher divisions. Right now Leah thought this was worth taking the chance, because there was no guarantee that taking it slow would be any safer. At the rate things were going she half expected there to be a boss-class creature in here.

“It's a risk,” Darin said.

“Yeah. And I'm tired of waiting around. Let's go.”

She might have been the one advocating for patience on their journey up to the top, but even she had limits as to how much time she wanted to waste. Let this place try to stop them. They would smash their way through, just like they had dealt with the rest.

T
o her surprise
the opposition in the water room was fairly light, consisting of only a few water golems that popped out of the pool and attacked. Darin and Taji had taken care of them in short order, so quickly that Leah hadn't even needed to draw her bow.

She supposed that she should have been thankful for the respite, but the change made her uneasy. Were they over the hump, so to speak, or was their final challenge going to be even more difficult?

“Here we are,” Darin said as they stood in front of the last hallway leading to the boss room.

A pair of doors blocked their path, made of blackened iron and decorated with all manner of symbols and sculptures. Swords, dragons, wolves, warriors, they all blended together and made for an intimidating sight. Leah felt her unease grow even more as she looked at them.

It wasn't the sight of the doors that gave her pause. She had seen them before, and they looked the same as always. No, it was what lay behind them, waiting for her team. Leah knew very well that the tough challenges they faced on the way here were nothing more than a prelude, a way to weed out the woefully unprepared teams. This was where the real test began, the one that separated the capable teams form everyone else. And despite facing down this challenge before, Leah still felt the nerves.

There were so many difference, so many little things that could go wrong. They had a team with two relatively new players. Taji at least had some experience in tournament style matches, but Erika was completely new. They had no idea what kind of team they'd be facing here either. Would they be standard? A team focused on ranged attacks, or one that used speed? Something else? There was no way to know until they opened the door.

But then, that was the way the tournaments worked. Teams had to submit their character builds in advance, but no one except the tournament committee knew that information until the match started. A team bringing a new configuration or strategy could spring it on the enemy and achieve the element of surprise before they knew what was happening. The Cave of Origin was no different.

She looked over at Darin. “Do we bother formulating a plan before we go in?”

“Since we don't even know what we're facing that's not going to help.” He turned to the others. “Just stick with the basics and don't take any risks until we know what we're up against. We'll come up with our plan of attack then.

Leah made one last check of her health and equipment. Good enough. Now it was time for them to put up or shut up.

“Ready?” Darin asked.

Everyone else nodded.

He pushed open the doors. “Let's go.”

They stepped into the final chamber. Leah noted that it looked the same as the last time she had been here. The entire room was made of cut stone instead of being carved out of the rock like the rest of the cave. Torches lit the area, but part of the wall on the other side of the chamber remained shrouded in darkness. That was where the enemy would appear from.

She tensed for a moment as the darkness suddenly lit up. New torches burned against the far wall, illuminating a quartet of banners. It took a moment for Leah to realize what kind of symbol was emblazoned on them.

It was a wolf, pitch-black and howling.

“Of course,” she heard Darin say in a resigned tone. “Of course we get the Black Wolves.”

Leah didn't have time to respond. Four shadowy figures seemed to appear out of thin air and charged toward them. She yanked an arrow out of her quiver and drew her bow back.

It was crunch time.

D
arin was completely taken aback
by the speed of his opponents. He had heard about the Black Wolves, but he had never actually encountered them inside the Cave of Origin. Neither had many others, and fewer still had managed to live through their encounter. Some god had it out for them, or they would have if this wasn't a virtual reality. In this case his team might just have the worst luck possible.

He brought his weapon around to parry, just as one of the shadowy figures charged at him. Darin barely managed to deflect the blow, and the force of the attack still rattled his weapon. The haft of his halberd vibrated violently, sending a shock through his hands and causing him to grit his teeth.

Another blur charged at him, this one far faster than the last. Darin tried to dodge again, but he couldn't get out of the way. The pair of daggers cut at him, deflecting off his armor but sending him stumbling backward. He whipped his weapon around in an arc, trying to score a hit or at least force the enemy to fall back, but cut nothing but air. His foe was already gone.

Darin activated the telepathy link. “We have a damage dealer with a longsword and medium armor, and a dual-wielding rogue with manipulation magic. It already used Flash Step on me.”

“There's an archer too. Looks like it's using support magic,” Leah said. “I-”

Her voice suddenly cut off, but Darin didn't have time to check. The rogue came back around for another attack, and again he had to deflect it off of his armor. He hadn't lost much health so far, but one of the attacks was going to find its mark and cause a critical hit.

“I'm casting Challenge Call now,” Taji said.

“Stay on the defensive. Don't open yourself up to attack,” Darin ordered. “And make sure you add on Stone Skin as well.”

“Got it.”

“Casting Pre-sight,” Darin told the others. He would have done it at the beginning of the battle, but the speed of the enemy attack had forced him to defend and spoiled his chance.

“Um, Darin?”

“Yeah?”

“I'm a little stuck right now,” Leah told him

He chanced a look over his shoulder. A pair of chains hung off her armor, connecting her to the ground and restricting her movement.

“Taji, Erika, keep an eye on the enemy and make sure they don't get near Leah,” he ordered.

Binding. The archer must have cast Bind on one of their arrows, and a fairly high-level one at that. Darin also had the power, but his was only made of rope. It was still useful if he could score a hit, but managing that would be difficult.

And the ropes weren't much against hordes of enemies or large foes, making them only effective against human-sized targets. That was all well and good, but Darin didn't think he could hit any of the Black Wolves with it. They were moving far too fast.

And they had only accounted for three of them. Under standard configuration they'd have a tank somewhere. Where was it? If he-

“Up!” Erika yelled out.

He saw the glow before anything else. Sky Walk. Something had just cast Sky Walk. And a split-second later another shadowy figure leaped down across the platforms, moving in a blur. This one had a longsword in its grasp, and Darin knew he wasn't going to get his weapon up in time to block. His armor might not hold up against a strike from a strong weapon like that either. If only-

Another series of platforms suddenly appeared in the air. Before he even knew what was happening another blur charged into the fray, forcing the other one to back off.

“So they have no tank and two rogues, along with an archer and damager,” Leah said. “That's going to be a problem.”

Darin looked around, trying to regain his bearings. Taji stood his ground, fending off attacks from the enemy damager with his shield. Leah still remained chained to the ground, and the enemy archer was nowhere to be seen. One rogue had retreated, the other was still on the platforms. Erika wasn't visible either, so she must have been the blur that saved him.

“What do you want to try?” Leah asked.

“Hold off on using destruction spells for a second. Let's know what we're aiming at first.”

“And then?”

“Try to keep the enemy off our backs,” Darin said. “Taji, I'm going to try to gang up on one of the enemies with you. Try to keep your guy in place.”

“Got it.”

Darin looked around, trying to determine the location of the second rogue. He didn't want to end up charging into a fight only to get stabbed in the back. There weren't many places for it to hide, but he couldn't spot his foe. Was it regrouping, or waiting for him to turn his back so it could strike? The AI for these opponents was far beyond anything else in the cave.

He had to take a chance, though, otherwise they'd be stuck in a stalemate. And with their most powerful attacker stuck in place they were at a huge disadvantage. Right now they had to focus on taking down at least one of the enemy. If they could just get it to a four on three fight a lot of different options opened up.

The attacker with the longsword would make a good target. It didn't have the specialized manipulation spells of the rogues, or the range of the archer, but it would be the easiest to kill and could still do a fair amount of damage if left alive.

Darin cast binding in his hand and held it for a moment, trying to decide when to fire his shot. Bind wasn't terribly accurate unless it was cast on a weapon or another projectile, and he didn't have anything he could use at range. There was also the danger of friendly fire. If he missed and hit Taji by mistake they'd have two players that were effectively immobilized.

That left him with only one choice. Darin gripped his weapon in his left hand and charged forward, hoping to cast the spell at close range. If he could just get within ten feet or so he'd have a point-blank shot. If only the-

Another blur suddenly appeared in front of him and struck. Darin didn't even have time to properly react before his foe had disappeared in the blink of an eye. He saw his health bar drop into the yellow in an instant.

But right now he was committed to the attack. He had to expend the last spell before he could cast healing, and he might as well make it count for something.

“Hold him in place,” he ordered Taji over the telepathy link, and sprang forward to close the final distance.

The enemy fighter started to turn and move away, but Taji caught it with a blow from his sword and sent it staggering. That second's worth of distraction was more than enough for him. Darin reached out and cast Bind. Ropes snaked around the enemy's limbs, anchoring them to the ground. They lashed out with their blade trying to cut free, but it made an opening.

“Take it out,” Darin said, and leaped in with a two-handed overhead strike. His chomp cut away one of the ropes, but it also left the enemy fighter with a massive gash running down one side.

Taji charged in as well, swinging his shield to bash out and stun the fighter further. Another sword stroke cut away more ropes and inflicted even more damage, though with Stone Skin active it wasn't a lot. Every little bit counted. Besides, it provided another distraction.

Darin whirled his weapon around and came back with another overhead strike, this time aiming for the enemy's skull with the halberd's back spike. He felt the impact, almost like a crunch, and then the resistance was suddenly gone. His target toppled over, stone dead.

He didn't have time to celebrate. An arrow suddenly thudded into his side, knocking him off balance for a moment and causing his health to drop even further. The damage wasn't the worst part, though. No, it was the status effect that came with it. And right now that was enough to throw their entire plan off balance, even with one of the enemy down.

“Guys, I have to fall back,” he said. “One more good hit and I'm done for.”

“We'll handle it from here,” Taji said.

Erika didn't respond, which didn't surprise him in the slightest. She was still caught up in her battle with one of the rogues, hopping across the aerial platforms, the cave floor, even the walls and the ceiling at times.

Darin moved back beside Leah, wondering when the status effect would wear off. The archer had cast Weeping Wounds on the arrow, a high-level support spell that prevented the target from being healed for several minutes. Coupled with the damage that he had already suffered and Darin was in a tight spot. If he took any more damage he risked being killed, and that would put the team at a severe disadvantage. At least this way he could wait for the timer to run out, heal himself and then go back into the fray. Hopefully the others could hold out until then.

But it put them in a tight spot. With Leah chained to her spot and his own damage preventing him from joining the fight it was up to their two newest members to carry the load. And they'd have to do it against the toughest possible boss combination, to boot.

“Not how I planned on this going,” he commented to Leah.

She drew back her bow and snapped off a shot. “Not how I planned it either, but isn't how it always goes? Your plan's only good for the first thirty seconds before everything starts to go wrong. Now it's about seeing what we can salvage.”

“Or what they can,” he said. Another arrow came streaking toward him, but the Pre-sight ability he had cast helped him to get out of the way. That was all that he was good for at this point.

“I think it's time we stopped playing around,” Leah said.

“Oh, this is what you call playing around?”

“Since I haven't used any of my destruction spells I think that counts. I'm killing that archer, and I'm using everything I can to make that happen.”

“Go ahead,” he told her. Saving the spells meant very little if the enemy just picked them all off one at a time. The sooner they could get rid of the archer, the sooner they had less enemies to worry about. And once they were abler to fight four on two the battle would swing even further in their favor.

That was, if they were in any shape to fight at that point. Taji held steady, fighting off one of the rogues who charged in and out making strikes. Even without using Flash Step it was too fast for him to hit, especially when he carried a bulky set of armor and the weight of a shield and battle axe.

Erika still fought with the other rogue, this time using wraith as another trump card. Her enemy must have mirrored her, because there were at least a dozen figures fighting it out. And then there was the archer, the one thing that was causing most of the problems. The rogues were difficult to deal with, and the swordsman damager had caused problems as well, but it the archer that was making things hard. It could reach out and hit anyone, and everyone had to keep their head on a swivel. Darin had failed to do so and was now stuck in his current predicament.

At least the archer didn't have destruction magic, because then they would have been in serious trouble. The support magic was bad enough, though, and it worked in synergy with the rest of the team. Instead of dealing out huge amounts of damage like Leah was wont to do, the enemy archer focused on slowing down their team and creating openings for the rogues to make quick strikes. It was working too. Even though the Black Wolves hadn't killed anyone, Darin was effectively out for the time being and Leah was severely limited.

But she could still lash out, and that might be their best hope for completely turing the fighting in their favor. The question was, could she get a good shot in without hitting anyone else? They didn't have a huge amount of room in here.

“I'm starting off with a Fire Blast arrow,” Leah said over telepathy. “Make sure you don't get caught up in the blast.”

Darin watched her pull back her bow and cast the spell, feeling the frustration simmering inside him. Right now he was just a bystander, doing nothing because wading into the fight was far too much of a risk. He could provide some limited direction, heal the others if needed too, but he felt like he should be on the front, fighting off the rest of the Black Wolves.

And the worst part about it was that he was right here, but he couldn't do anything to help the other two. Their success was largely dependent on the new players. The thought kept repeating in his mind, no matter how much confidence he placed in them.

Darin couldn't help it. He felt so weak at this point, a shell of his former abilities as a top-ranked player. A month or two ago this fight would have been a cake walk, not every worthy worrying about. Anything short of a legendary-class monster would have fallen victim to Silver Star.

But then, there wasn't much drama in that either. Chad's words echoed in his mind. No one wanted to watch an invincible team stay on top for too long. After a while there was no drama, no excitement watching challengers line up and go to their doom like cattle to the slaughter. If someone wanted to change that, if someone wanted to shake up the entire complexion of the tournaments and breathe life into them…

He hated to admit it, but whether he liked it or not the entire world of Avalon Online was changing. He could fight and claw every inch of the way, hoping against all odds that things would stay the way they were, even though deep down he knew it would never happen. Or, he could find a way to adapt to the changes, moving forward instead of dwelling in the past.

And part of that meant trusting his teammates both new and old. They weren't going to get anywhere if he continually babied Erika and Taji.

He glanced down at the timer in the corner of his vision. One minute. One minute until the effects of Weeping Wounds ended and he could heal himself. Just one minute, but a lot could happen in that span of time. Their fate could be decided before he even got the chance to go back into the fray…

Trust, though. Trust in his teammates. They'd do it. They'd find a way to pull through, even in his absence. If they were aiming for the top there were times he was going to be down and out, and it would be up to the others to carry the team. They might as well start right here.

Leah fired her arrow.

The enemy archer tried to dodge out of the way, but Leah's shot landed far too close. The resultant explosion rocked the entire chamber, sending a gust of wind rippling past and tugging at his cloak. Erika and Taji both took a bit of damage, but the enemy archer bore the brunt of the destruction.