World of Eternia: The Complete Collection (54 page)

“No,” the priestess
starts to reply, but quickly shuts her mouth to avoid interrupting
his spell.

* * *

The encased cloud
runner drops to the ground with a loud “SPLAT!” The mount and
rider land just a few yards right in front of Virgil and his
remaining men.

The leader of Easy
Money stares at the cloud runner incredulously. Finally he looks up
and frowns. He sees Carlos coming down. Virgil turns to his three
remaining spell casters, and chooses one of them. “Quan, I want you
to back up until you see who is still on the mountain top. Cast
something to take care of them. Blow your entire mana bar if you have
to. Otherwise we’ll be sitting ducks when we enter the road again
to challenge Heimdall,” he orders while glancing at the fighter a
distance away from them.

The grim reaper is
still glued to his spot in the middle of the road, perfectly content
to run out the clock. Kassender and other spell casters are busy
casting various protections on their tank.

“Yes sir!” the mage
salutes and starts to head for the exit from the passage way.

Once the man disappears
from view, someone in the party cries out a warning. “Incoming!”

Virgil looks up and
sees fireballs heading towards him. The leader instinctively ducks
but the spells fizzle some distance above his head.

“I’m glad my
anti-magic shell activated just in time,” Diane Cross Bearer says
proudly.

“Now send something
back up!” Virgil barks.
What
the heck are these guys going to do without me?

“I’ll be casting
blind though, because I don’t know where they are on the mountain,”
Jaxon Pagone warns.

“Just hit the left
side, then,” Virgil replies. “If nothing else, your spell will
get them to back off while we deal with Heimdall.”

“Roger that,” the
fire mage replies and starts preparing to cast a Firestorm to cover
the left side of the chasm. The player switches over to magic screen
view; he chooses a swath of land from the edge of the wall covering
twelve feet and extends it five feet outward. Finally, the player
clicks activate and the avatar automatically starts the chant while
the spell component disappears from his inventory.
“Ccchhhhhhhhrrrrrrrr.” Jaxon nods in satisfaction as droplets of
fire rain down from the sky over the chosen area of land on the
mountain top.

“Carlos!” Virgil
yells out while pointing upward.

The cloud runner
salutes in acknowledgement of the order, and commands his mount to
head back up for mop up duties.

* * *

Brandon manages to
finish casting “Earth Shake” right before his position is pelted
by a Firestorm. The spell quickly drains his health bar down to zero,
since there is no cover in the area to shelter him from the deadly
rain. Before his avatar dies, Brandon manages to turn around and sees
that Vicky had foolishly decided to stay with him.

The player rips his
virtual reality helmet off in disgust when the dreaded “Game Over”
flashes on his view screen. “Unlike Vicky, at least I managed to a
lick in before dying,” he says aloud. Unfortunately, the spell only
does minor area of effect (“aoe”) damage.
Hopefully
it’ll be enough for Heimdall to finish them off
, he
thinks as Brandon quickly logs into the continuing stream.

* * *

“And there we have
it, ladies and gentlemen! Our first spell war!” Evan says with glee
for the camera. “Can we get a replay of the spell trade please?”
the host requests. The screen quickly shows the exchange of Firestorm
for Earth Shake.

The Virtuans are
knocked to the ground by the spell, interrupting spell casting by
other members of the party.

Richard politely claps
at the volley of spells between the two sides. The event is going
surprisingly well, with thirty four of his players still on the field
compared to thirty for the Virtuans. The infighting amongst the other
side has really hurt them.

“Why is Heimdall
standing in the middle of the road, and allowing the Virtuans to
regroup?” Antoinette asks.

“Is that what it
looks like to you?” Richard responds with his own question.
“Heimdall is in the perfect position along the road as a tank. He’s
close enough to his support for the healers to send protection and
heals his way. If he moves up to the breach in the abatis, where the
Virtuans are standing right now, then Heimdall will lose his support.
Of course, the healers could move up with him, but then they won’t
be protecting the portal in case a Virtuan manages to sneak pass
Heimdall via a rogue sneak ability or an invisibility spell,” the
EDE chief executive explains patiently.

“Also, Heimdall
doesn’t need to eliminate all the Virtuans from the field. If the
clock runs out without a single Virtuan stepping through the portal,
the Eternian side will win by default,” Evan points out.

“Exactly so,”
Richard agrees.

“We have ninety
minutes remaining in this match. There is still plenty of time for my
players to solve the puzzle before them,” Charles reminds them.

“And now, let’s
return to the field,” Evan says.

“What should we do?”
Conrad yells while looking back at Wesley, who is stationed in the
middle of the plateau on the mountain top. The leader is making
adjustments to the defense in response to attacks on the mountain.

Seeing all the action
at the far end of the road, especially the way Heimdall has been
mowing down the invaders, is making Conrad antsy. He blows air nosily
out of his mouth, in an attempt to calm his nerves.

“Stay put,” Wesley
orders immediately. “Your assignment is to defend the portal, and
to do that you have to remain at your current position. I understand
you would much rather join Heimdall and fight the Virtuans head on.
Believe me I’m itching to climb down the rope myself. It is mighty
tempting to abandon post and charge at those guys. But there are
enough defenders, immensely skilled players, to handle whatever the
Virtuans can throw at them. Our assignment is to keep this area under
our control and to prevent the other side from taking the back door
to reach the portal.”

“Yeah, but Heimdall
is hogging the spotlight!” the big man whines in frustration.

The knight chuckles at
the reminder of how much Conrad loves to preen for the camera. “Look,
we still got thirty Virtuans on the field. I am one hundred percent
certain that you will eventually get your opportunity in front of the
camera by the end of this event,” he says reassuringly.

Conrad raises his
eyebrows in skepticism at his leader’s words, but remains silent.

Wesley yells out. “Any
sign of the enemy from the back?”

Lucious turns around
from his twelve o’clock position on the mountain top. “No,” he
says quietly. He shares a look with Diana, his partner manning the
rear. “I have a feeling the frontal assault is a Trojan horse,”
he says quietly so that only his girlfriend can hear.

“Could be,” Diana
agrees. “You would expect to see an attempt to hit us from the back
by now. Each side has ten mounts, and we’ve seen only five so far.
That leaves another five fliers floating around,” she notes while
nervously checking the clouds above her head for signs of the
gigantic snakes.

* * *

“Up there!”

Suddenly a cloud runner
appears above the defenders on the mountain top.

Carlos quickly surveys
the scene. He sees a bunch of those irritating lightning rods that
can negate his mount’s lightning breath. “Let’s change
strategy,” he decides and wills his mount to dive toward the priest
standing near the eastern edge of the plateau.

Chhhhhhhuuuurrr!

The gigantic snake
descends with the quickness of a lightning bolt and rams its head
into the helpless defender’s chest. The surprised target is pushed
by the momentum, and knocked off the plateau. He falls to the ground
with a “splat!”

The cloud runner twists
and turns to avoid the ensuing arrows, and dives to avoid a fireball
thrown at it as well.

Carlos sees another
defender standing a bit too far from the lightning rods. He enters
the magic screen view, and directs the runner’s lightning breath to
target the mage. Once he clicks on the “Activate” icon, the
player returns normal view and sees that the lightning bolt has
successfully hit the target.

“That’s two down,”
he says while making a fist bump.

* * *

“Don’t look now,
but the Virtuans are trying to take over the sky!” Evan says. “That
rider is absolutely wreaking havoc on the defenders!”

“My players are
professionals,” Charles says with a quiet confidence. “They won’t
fold that easily on the field over some minor setback.”

“I’m sure your
player is happy getting his ten seconds of fame right now,” Richard
replies coolly. “But for the viewers keeping score, that is the
only cloud runner left in the tournament,” he reminds the audience.
“And so the question becomes: what can one snake do to wrestle the
momentum away from my players?”

“With take, we’ll
need to continue watching the cloud runner to find out,” Evan says
and the camera turns over to follow the rider.

* * *

“Whoa!” the rider
yelps as Carlos tries to tighten his grips on the reins of his cloud
runner. The snake has been busy weaving its body in the sky to avoid
the arrows and spells. So far nothing has landed, but it makes for a
difficult ride for the player on the snake’s neck.

Finally fed up, Carlos
yells, “UP!” He tugs on the mane of the snake to emphasize his
desire to climb back up to the clouds for a quick breather.

* * *

“Okay, what do we do,
boss?” Conrad asks as beads of sweat drip down his face. The
gigantic snake sure knows how to move! It is simply too fast for the
sniper to follow with his visor, much less shoot at.

Wesley looks around the
plateau to review his options.
There
is absolutely no way for my archers and spell casters to keep up with
the snake while it is in the sky. The only way to take it out is to
lure it to the ground. Now who is the best option to serve as bait? I
need someone with high agility, a rogue class preferably.
Quickly,
Wesley’s eyes settle on Pablova. “Hey Pablova!” he yells.

“What is it?” the
rogue yells back while keeping his eyes glued to the sky. His back is
leaning against the lightning rod.

“Are you willing to
serve as bait?” the knight asks. “I need you to move away from
that lightning rod and stand closer to the edge. The rider will come
down from the sky and try to knock you off the mountain.”

“With my high
agility, I can dive to avoid being rammed and quickly counterattack,”
Pablova finishes the thought aloud.

“And while you keep
the snake occupied on the ground, the rest of us can target the
creature,” Wesley adds.

“That is assuming I
won’t be hit with friendly fire,” the rogue notes.

“You won’t,” the
cavalier assures him. “Isn’t that right?” Wesley asks aloud.

“YEAH!” a chorus
yells in response.

“That guy is making
us look bad on the stream. We need to regain our honor by taking him
out,” Yagrissil adds.

* * *

The cloud runner stays
aloft in the sky as the rider scans the defense once again. Since
manually controlling the mount is considered an in-game skill
requiring expenditure of mana, Carlos has to take a brief rest to
allow his mana bar to refill. Finally he decides to target the guy in
green leather holding a bow and arrow. “Come on Tammy, time to make
another dive,” he tells the gigantic snake.

The cloud runner breaks
free of the cloud cover and quickly dives toward the archer!

* * *

“Here they come!”
Pablova yells. “Come and get me,” he taunts while making an
obscene gesture. He continues to hold his ground while firing arrows
at the snake. However, none of his arrows manage to score a hit!

Churrrrrrr!

The cloud runner dives
even faster, trying to ram the defender off the mountain!

The rogue waits for the
snake to reach him.
Wait! Wait!
NOW!
Pablova dives forward on the ground and drops his bow
and arrow. The rogue plants his legs on the ground and he quickly
pulls out his twin daggers.

The cloud runner misses
the agile rogue; but it flies too close to the ground, allowing the
daggers to reach its soft underbelly and make two deep, long cuts.
The thief continues to hold up his hands, allowing the snake’s
momentum to cut deeper into the soft, unprotected flesh. Soon, the
daggers reach the cloud runner’s heart. The gigantic snake shakes
for its final moment of life, and then collapses on top of Pablova.

The crush damage
immediately sucks half the victor’s health bar, and gives Pablova
stun status.

Carlos sits frozen on
the dead mount, shocked at how easily it has died from mere daggers!

“Get him!”

Before the rider can
dismount, he is bombarded with arrows and fireballs.

“Stop!” Wesley
shouts, but alas it is too late. The fireballs were aimed
indiscriminately at the rider and mount, engulfing both-as well as
the trapped defender underneath.

* * *

Pablova rips his
virtual reality equipment off his head in frustration as the “Game
Over” flashes on his screen. “So much for not being hit with
friendly fire,” the player complains bitterly. He decides to leave
his apartment for a quick smoke outdoors.

* * *

“Well, there we have
it!” Evan says aloud for the camera. “The last of the dangerous
cloud runners have been vanquished!”

“But it was a costly
exchange of lives again,” Antoinette notes in reference to
Pablova’s death by friendly fire.

“We are on amateur
hour,” Charles taunts. “These kinds of accidents will occur
frequently.”