World of Eternia: The Complete Collection (8 page)

Diana speaks up. “Those
crossbowmen are present to prevent clergy characters like myself from
using my Turn Undead ability on them. The range of effect for a turn
undead is fairly short, approximately at the range of a thrown weapon
like a knife. Like you said Wesley, I'll be shot full of bolts before
I could get in range to use my clerical ability,” she shrugs
helplessly in response.

The party members turn
their attention to the battle mage, who is lost in thought.

“You got any ideas?”
Wesley tries to draw the young man's attention.

“About?” Lucious
blurts out in reply instinctively. He blinks his eyes, and remembers
the current situation of the party. “Oh! Sorry, I was mentally
going through my spell book to figure out what spell or magical
effect could bypass those reflective shields,” he quickly adds. He
looks at Wesley. “Tell me what you think of this idea. I could cast
a Wall of Ice spell to surround the monsters, and trap the skeletal
army within the ice. The spell will affect the environment, rather
than the shield bearers. The Reflective shields will not work on the
spell unless I directly entrap the carriers in ice, which I obviously
won't do. The spell will not last too long, though. But the spell
should give us enough time for our party to go around the ice, and
leave this pit,” he proposes.

Conrad rubs the back of
his neck with his club. “But if you encase them in ice, how would
we grab their shields? I want one!” he declares.

“Seriously?” the
mage looks askance at the barbarian. “I thought you were kidding
about that,” he shakes his head.

Conrad stares at him
silently.

Lucious stares back
defiantly at the big man for a moment, and then looks down.
If
this big boy don't get his shiny new toy, he will whine about it for
the rest of this mission
, the mage thinks to himself.
“Fine,” he sighs.
Hopefully
I won’t regret this.
He tilts his head back up and looks
at Wesley to offer a slight alteration to the previous proposal. “I
could modify the contours of the wall of ice and leave an opening
right in front of a shield bearer. If you manage to defeat one of
these warriors quickly and grab his shield, I could immediately
create another wall of ice to block the opening,” he suggests.
Lucious pauses for a moment to calculate the mana required to create
two walls, and nods to himself once he confirms that it is doable.
“Yeah, I should have enough mana to create two walls. The first one
will be the big drain on my reserves, though. This means I won't be
able to help if you wind up engaging these skeletons in melee,” he
cautions.

“Thank you,” Conrad
replies softly. “I'll make sure this is a two partner dance,” he
adds as he pulls his magical ivory club off his belt's loop.

“Thank me
after
you grab the shield, you damn pirate!” the mage retorts.
I
wouldn’t be surprised if something goes wrong with this plan.

“If the wall of ice
is high enough to block the bolts fired from the archers' crossbows,
then I could stand next to the wall, and use my Turn Undead ability
and focus on the shield bearer standing in front of the gap in the
wall. My power should disintegrate at least a few of those
skeletons,” Diana speaks up, and glances at the battle mage. She is
unsure of how many her clerical ability will take down, because their
monster class level is unknown. The higher the monster level, the
fewer monsters Diana’s Turn Undead ability will affect.

Lucious notices the
glance, and nods in understanding. Due to the way the game designers
arranged this encounter, the battle mage is forced to take a
supportive role rather than his customary direct role as a damage
dealer. She just wants to assure him that the plan will work.

“Let's do it,
Strangers!” Wesley says with finality, to end the discussion.

The other members of
The Strangers nod in acknowledgment of his order. Looking back at the
approaching army, the party sees that the skeletal warriors have
reached more than halfway across the pit.

Lucious grabs his staff
in both hands, and holds it horizontally in front of him. He slowly
repeats the arcane words of the spell:
“qawt-cako-yako-pure-gkit-upre.” The spell caster switches from
the player's normal view to magic screen view, and draws the
dimensions and contours of the wall of ice on the screen with his
virtual reality gloves. His magic screen view reveals purple tendrils
of power emanating from his glowing staff, flickering to and fro as
the shadowy tendrils slowly surround and envelop the undead skeletal
platoon. The tendrils give way to water vapor, which then crystallize
and harden into cold ice at an exponential rate.

The front line of
shield bearers is halted dead in its tracks, as the wall of ice
quickly thicken and block the front line, and then envelop the entire
group of undead and capture the entire group within the ice. Thuk!
Thuk! The skeletal crossbowmen release their powerful bolts into the
wall of ice, but the bolts cannot break through the thick ice.

“You see the
opening?” the mage yells out as he returns to normal view.

“On it!” Conrad
answers as he starts running towards the narrow, foot and a half gap
of space in the wall of ice. He sees a shield bearer trying to use
its shield to chip away at the edge of the gap in the wall, and widen
the gap.

“Me too!” Diana
yells as she gamely tries to match the professional athlete's pace,
and fails.
I can't be that out
of shape
, she sulks to herself as the gap between her and
the barbarian steadily increases.

Wesley also tries to
keep up with the two. However, he is encumbered by his steel plate
armor and soon lags far behind the two unarmored party members.

“Lalalalalala!” the
barbarian yells out as he nears the wall.
Too
bad these monsters are already dead, or else my battle cry will sap
at their will to fight
, he laments to himself. Finally
standing in front of the gap, he sees that the skeletal warrior in
front of the gap in the wall of ice is bigger than the other
warriors. The skeletons have been bunched together so tightly inside
the ice that the spearmen lack the room to raise their spears to jab
at him. Nor could the crossbowmen raise their bows to take aim at
him. “Give me that!” Conrad says as he grabs the valuable,
rectangular shield by the top and bottom edge, and tries to wrestle
the magical shield away from the skeletal warrior.

However, the massive
shield is strapped to the skeletal warrior's left forearm, and the
owner tries to pull the shield back inside the gap. Other skeletons
adjacent to the shield bearer join in and pull their comrade inward,
dragging the living human being along like fish on a hook.

“Why you!” Conrad
grits his teeth, and suddenly jumps in the air. He adroitly turns and
maneuvers his body, kicking out his legs so that both feet are on the
wall on either side of the gap. Using the wall of ice as additional
leverage, the big warrior pulls on the shield until it is wedged at
the gap again.

“May the Gods of
Eternia take pity on these lost souls! May the Gods of Eternia return
them to their Eternal Rest!” Diana shouts as her hands clutch the
cross hanging from a silver chain around her neck. A white glow of
light emanates from the priestess’ body. The pure, holy light
instantaneously expands in a blinding flash. All undead creatures
touched by the holy light immediately crumble into small piles of
dust.

Seeing that the
middle-third of the skeletons have turned into dust, the barbarian
hops down onto solid ground, and quickly pushes the massive shield
inward. Manipulating the shield and turning it sideways, Conrad
successfully pulls the heavy shield through the gap. Still standing
in front of the gap, he holds the reflective shield in the air, and
admires the glimmering, archaic runes that adorn the face of the
shield.

Suddenly Conrad feels a
rush of air heading straight for his head, and instinctively turns
his body to block with his shield. Ping! Ping! Moving backwards while
still holding up the hard won tower shield along the edge, the
barbarian slowly backs away from the open gap in the wall of ice.

Wesley turns back to
look at the mage. “Now!” he cries out.

Lucious holds out his
staff horizontally, and repeats his wall of ice spell. He had been
slowly abiding his time, while his mana pool slowly regenerates
itself. Pouring a much smaller amount of energy into the spell this
time, the battle mage coaxes the water vapors to congregate in front
of the gap in the wall of ice. The vapors quickly harden into solid
ice, sealing the remaining skeletal warriors inside. The spell caster
sags to his knees as his mana pool is drained again, sending a
biofeedback loop of dizziness back to the real life player behind his
computer.

Conrad straps his hard
won prize onto his left forearm. When he looks up again, he sees that
all eyes are on the magical shield. He ignores the attention, and
raises his arm to get accustomed to the weight of the tower shield on
his arm. He looks to face Wesley, and asks, “Why don't you get one
of these for yourself?”

The cavalier looks at
the steel buckler shield strapped to his arm, and notes that it is
approximately half the size of the tower shield on Conrad’s
forearm. The military man faces the big athlete and shakes his head.
“Those towers shields are too heavy for me. I am already encumbered
by my heavy suit of steel plate armor. I won't be able to move if I
carry a massive tower shield as well,” he answers.

The spell casters start
to walk around the encasement of ice, leaving the melee warriors
behind.

Diana turns back, and
yells with exasperation. “Guys! Let's get out of here before the
wall of ice melts!”

The two melee fighters
look at each other, and turn as one to face the spell casters.
“Coming!” they reply in unison.

The Strangers gather
around in front of the steel wheel, which is the the size of a large
Frisbee and attached vertically to the wall next to the archway. A
handle, long enough for a two hands grip, juts out of the wheel,
which could apparently be rotated clockwise or counterclockwise.
Attached to the wheel is a set of thick, steel chains that connect to
the cross-barred gate, currently pulled up and embedded within the
wall above the great archway.

Lucious eyes his wall
of ice for a moment and his gaze lowers to the growing puddle of
water on the floor beyond the archway. “My wall of ice is starting
to melt. You guys better set down the gate before our dear friends
break out of their entombment,” the spell caster notes with
urgency. The player checks his mana pool on the upper right corner of
his player screen, and sees that it is approximately one-third full
now.
I still don’t have enough
in my mana pool to cast Wall of Ice,
he notes with
frustration.

“Right,” Wesley
agrees after his own eyes linger on the growing puddle of ice on the
ground. The knight starts to draw his great long sword out of its
scabbard. He suddenly pauses when the sword is half-drawn. He looks
back at his party members, and realizes that they are standing too
close to him. He releases his weapon, and it slides back into the
scabbard. “I need some space,” he shoos them away with a motion
of his gauntlet-covered hand.

“Oops,” Conrad
remarks to his chagrin, as he puts each hand on a spell caster's
shoulder, and gently pulls the two a few steps back away from the
chains and the knight.

Satisfied with the
additional space he now has to work with, the cavalier frees his
sword from the scabbard with an ease born of long practice with the
player's real life gloves. He winds his sword back like a golf club,
and unleashes a vicious hack at the thick chain.

Ting! The chain rattles
like rolling dice, but holds firm.

Wesley furrows his
eyebrows as he looks intently at the spot where his sword had just
hit the link in the chain. Barely a dent, he observes. The cavalier
puts his sword down, leaning it against the wheel. He proceeds to
pull his shield off his left forearm.

“Whoa, a two hand
job!” the barbarian cat calls as he watches with amusement from a
short distance away.
Too bad I
don't have an ax or else I'll join in the fun,
he notes
sadly to himself.
Maybe I should
offer to take a few hacks with his sword on the chain? I will make
the offer if the old man can’t cut it.

Wesley ignores the rude
comment, his focus solely on the task of cutting the links. He holds
the sword with a two-hand grip, winds the weapon back again, and
swings repeatedly with all his might.

Tching! Tching! Tching!
Tchuk! The chain finally breaks, causing the heavy gate to come
crashing down! BOOM! The impact reverberates on the floor, and the
ensuing shock wave nearly knocks the party members to the ground.

The cavalier is the
first to recover from the shock wave, and pauses for a moment to
admire his handiwork. Before the other members notice his gawking, he
quickly grabs his buckler shield and starts strapping it back to his
left forearm.

“Maybe we should have
just used the wheel to wind down the gate,” Lucious remarks once he
recovers from the unexpected shock wave.

“I disagree,”
Conrad replies immediately. “If we left the chain intact, the
undead warriors might have summoned a minion, like a ghost, to wind
up the gate again. We can't afford for these remaining skeletons to
attack us from behind, especially if we're dealing with the next
surprise left by the game designers from the front. We lack the
manpower to defend two fronts like that,” he explains his
rationale.