Captain Kal POV
The raid was moving in formation as we made our way towards the closest of the fortresses. We had our four tanks arranged in a diamond pattern so that one of them would be ready on every edge. Our frontline melee strikers were spread out along the forwards facing edges with ranged strikers on the back edges. Our healers and support mages were safely kept within the center of the formation where anyone on the edges could quickly respond to help them.
A quick flash of light reflected off of a mirror caught my attention and I halted the raid. Three quick flashes followed by one long flash, the signal for a stealthy approach. A short pause followed by another two quick flashes, danger level two. I pulled out a small hand mirror and responded with an affirmative acknowledgement.
“Alright everyone, Junior has scouted something interesting up ahead. Danger level two and we’re to do a stealthy approach.” I said just loud enough for everyone to hear me.
Once I had everyone's acknowledgement I nodded to Shrike who quickly ordered his team into formation. Redemption were all reformed criminals and they still had a few skills that transferred over, such as their group stealth skill. It was highly effective since the skill got stronger when used in tandem.
With Redemption’s skill active the sounds of our raid group were muffled down and the visuals of us were distorted to blend in with the environment. If everyone in the raid had had the skill then it would’ve been even more effective, but even with just five people using the skill it was enough to keep us mostly stealthy.
I used guild hand signals to coordinate everyone as we moved carefully over the landscape. We hugged one of the cavern walls as having a more static backdrop would make it easier for the stealth skill to keep us concealed. It took us ten minutes of careful speed walking before we came upon a slight drop in the terrain with the sounds of battle coming from it. We shuffled forwards carefully until myself and a few others were able to peek over the edge and see the source of the noise.
Looking over the edge I saw that there was a short 5-7 foot drop before the ground leveled off again. The small streams that flow through this valley all pour down in small waterfalls causing the area below to have about half a foot of water covering it. It looks like the ground rises again after about half a mile, making this whole space a giant flooded plains or perhaps it's actually a mostly drained lake?
Down in the drained lake are two large groups of monsters fighting each other. From my current position I can see that the two groups have different markings, likely denoting whose side they’re on. The monsters I see are mostly Orcs and Hobgoblins with a few Ogres, Trolls, and Bristle Boars mixed in. From what I can tell both sides have Orcs, Hobs, and Ogres with one faction having the Bristle Boars and the other faction having the Trolls.
The Bristle Boar faction has an insignia that looks like a red Orc Skull with a crossed whip and battleax going behind it. The Troll faction has an insignia that looks like a troll forearm and hand wielding an entire tree as a club, I’m guessing that it's a troll hand/arm based off of the three large fingers (Orcs have four) and the shade of green.
“Looks like a Green faction and a Red faction, They’ve been fighting for a while from what I could tell” Junior says having sneaked up to my side during my observation.
“You couldn’t find out their names?” I question, not even flinching from Junior’s appearance.
“The noise of battle is too much and their accents don’t help either” He replies while sliding up next to me and returning to watching the battle.
“Alright, let’s just watch for now. If what we were told about the Contribution points is true then we won’t be losing out too much by picking off the weakened winner” I say, raising my voice just loud enough for everyone else to hear me as well.
According to the Spiritkin who was running the main contribution point store the way they worked was rather simple, yet different from Eternal Coins. Contribution points could be gained by defeating monsters, completing quests, participating in events, and from other Token Holders. All the points we collect go into a special pool and when we make it back to Spirit Mountain Village or leave the floor the pool of points is converted into usable contribution points. If we die then we lose half our points and whatever kills us gets those points. The other half can then either be kept or given up to the dungeon in exchange for an extra life and halved experience penalty on the revive.
This was the first floor with a mechanic that actually somewhat encouraged different adventurer groups to fight one another. It also encourages the monsters to fight each other as they can also gain contribution points. From what the Spiritkin told us the monsters can use the contribution points to get evolutions and the Orcs can apparently even use their points to buy equipment, which was a terrifying prospect. The thought of a bunch of Orcs decked out in racial gear with set bonuses and skill ups genuinely scares me, after all one of the advantages we have over monsters is equipment. The only way things could be worse would be if the Orcs started getting classes as well.
I returned my thoughts towards the ongoing brawl and as my eyes were drawn to some more interesting figures among the Orcs. In particular a duel between what appeared to be two leaders of each faction. One of them was a large Troll covered in spikes and the other was a lanky Orc that appeared to be wielding a . . . lute battleax? The lanky orc was also dressed up in puffy clothes like an old time minstrel and had a small swarm of brightly colored birds assisting him.
Now that I had noticed this one oddity I also saw that there were strange Orcs and Hobs everywhere in this battle, all of which appeared to have commanding positions. It was almost as though being eccentric was a required quality for their commanders.
The other thing I noticed was that the leadership of the unnamed red faction all had beast companions. This made me assume that having a beast companion was an actual requirement for this faction because of how common they were. On the other side the leadership of the unnamed green faction were all Trolls, not a single Orc or Ogre.
My eyes finished wandering over the battlefield and refocused on the fight between the minstrel Orc and the spikey Troll. The Orc was holding on mostly through skill, expertly utilizing feints and dodges to avoid the devastating blows of the Troll’s tree trunk sized arms. The Troll seemed to be getting pissed off, especially as I could tell that the Orc was saying something to him the whole time. Based on his outfit alone, I assumed it was taunts and insults.
Whatever it was the Orc was saying it made the Troll incredibly angry as he suddenly let out a terrifying roar and was cloaked in an aura of red mist. A rage skill for sure. The activation of the skill appeared to be the Orc’s plan as he started doing something in response with his own mana. However the Orc underestimated the Troll’s new speed and got hit by a flailing attack sending him flying directly towards us.
“Incoming!” Junior shouted quickly dragging me away from where we were watching the fight.
The Orc came crashing down inches away from where we were landing so hard that his body was partially embedded into the rocky ground and kicked up a cloud of dust. I put my shield up and the rest of the raid members nearby all encircled the Orcs impact point, unsure if it was still alive or not. As I elected to get closer to examine the body the Orc suddenly moved.
The twanging of off key strings and the sounds of annoyed grunts could be heard. As the dust settled down we saw the Orc had already righted himself and was currently tuning his lute battleax. I stopped my approach and just gaped at the monster and it took that moment to finally notice us.
“Ahhh! Pink skinned humans, well ain’t this a treat!” He said in a somewhat melodic voice with a strange accent I didn’t recognize. The Orc seemed to move his gaze over the raid members before settling on me.
“Name’s Bazzle, Captain of Grobnozz’s Beast Breakaz and a master of the lyrical arts. Pleasure to meet you” The Orc eloquently said while taking off his feathered cap with a flourish and bowing at the waist.
“I’d love to stick around for introductions, but I’ve got a fight to win. If you’ll excuse me-!” He said with an upward inflection as he stepped back off the edge and dropped the six feet back down into the drained lake.
We all watched as he rushed back towards the massive spiked Troll while tuning his weapon the whole way.
“Wha-What was that? Did that actually just happen?” I said, stunned and still unmoving from my position.
“Well Captain, it appears that the dungeon doesn’t have normal Orcs. And yes that did just happen” Junior says from next to me with a smile on his face, of course that scholar is loving this.
“What do you want to do Raid Leader?” Shrike asked me, having approached to check if anyone was injured.
I paused and tried my best to think about this situation. We knew that this dungeon was unique and we had already heard from others who had beaten the Royal Woods that teaming up with monsters was possible. Perhaps that’s why the floor encouraged fighting between adventurers? If it was possible for us to back different factions then it would only make sense not to penalize us for fighting one another as it did on other floors.
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“This is an excellent opportunity.” I said my thoughts now in order. “If we can back one of the Orc factions then it will give us more support for raiding other fortresses, it could even unlock special quests and events for unique rewards”
I could see the gears turning in everyone else's heads and the mention of unique rewards got the glint of greed in their eyes. It didn’t take long before everyone was agreeing that we should at least make the attempt to back up one of the factions.
“Which side do we back?” One of the raid members I couldn’t see asked
“The red faction obviously. We don’t know if the Troll faction will be able to cooperate or even communicate with us, but that Orc definitely could. He even introduced himself.” I said to the now nodding heads of my Raid party.
“Alright, lead the way Captain” Junior said with an encouraging thumbs up.
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Captain Bazzle of Grobnozz’s Beast Breakaz, Master of the Lyrical Arts POV
“HAHA, TAKE THAT YOU DASTARDLY TROLL LOVER!” I yelled as the blade of my Battlelute found purchase between the eyes of a Boggerz Orc.
The only Orcs that would follow a Troll over one of their own are the morons who don’t understand what it means to have brains. All raw power and no skill, bunch of brutes. If it weren’t for their higher numbers and nonexistent training times we would’ve already beaten them. It didn’t help that anytime one of the factions got the upperhand they would suddenly find themselves ganged up on in a two vs one.
I slid beneath the legs of another Boggerz Troll, slashing upwards at his plums as I did so. The high pitched squeal he emitted was unbecoming of a Troll and only made me laugh harder. I continued my mad dash towards Darm the Spiny as he was currently devastating my troops without me there to keep him in check.
I managed to finish retuning my battlelute just in time to make a surprise attack to the back of the Trolls legs. The roar of pain never came and I was forced to quickly dodge three times as he unleashed a barrage of enraged attacks. I hated the Boggerz Troll rage skill, it turned them into silent unfeeling killing machines. It was just too different from the normal screaming rages of the more standard rage skills.
“I’m back Darm. One weak little strike isn’t enough to keep down Bazzle the Minstrel” I taunted as I continued to dodge his wild strikes.
Darm the Spiny was actually one of the better Captains in the Boggerz and someone who I was genuinely scared to fight. I wasn’t sure if I could beat him or not, but my best chance at it would be the moment his rage skill ended.
I continued to dodge, but I could feel my stamina starting to flag. I still had my mana, but I needed to save it for my trump card later on. Using my mana at this point in the fight might guarantee my survival, but it would ensure my defeat in this battle. I couldn’t lose this fight.
Darm kept on the pressure, his silent rage fueling his endless barrage of full force attacks. I was really starting to feel the pressure and could feel as cuts started to open up on my body from the shrapnel released everytime one of Darm’s blows struck the ground. Luckily his full force strikes also displaced enough water that it lowered his visibility, forcing him to slow his attacks below his normal maximum.
A bad dodge ended in me gaining a couple new half inch holes in my torso as several of Darm’s spines extended from his body just enough to hit me. The attacks hadn’t actually done that much damage, but that was irrelevant. Troll’s fought with attrition, utilizing their incredible regeneration to win every exchange of blows against their foe. I was going to lose, at this rate I would be forced to use my mana and call a retreat.
Right as I was about to charge up my disengage skill a massive ball of fire struck the back of Darm’s head, engulfing his helmeted skull in flames. For the first time I heard him actually scream in pain. I could hear the sizzling sounds of cooking flesh as his steel helm was turned molten enough to fuse with his head. Regeneration could only do so much against something like that.
A flash of silvery metal caught my attention as the human from earlier charged past me and crashed into Darm knocking him backwards while he was distracted by his melting helmet. The human jumped backwards just out of Darm’s reach as the Troll swung blindly in front of himself.
“Name’s Captain Kal, of Tarumguard. Seems like you could use a hand” He said with a smirk while positioning himself in front of me protectively.
I then felt a warmth spread though my body as my wounds started to stitch themselves up. The warmth also revitalized me, lessening the effects of my blood loss. I turned my head to the side to see another human casting the spell, he silently nodded to me.
“Well then, let it be known that Bazzle the Minstrel never turns down a helping hand!” I shouted as I charged back into the fray. With the help of these humans I might actually stand a chance.
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Captain Kal POV
We jumped into the middle of the battle, the raid splitting up into our individual parties to more effectively sway the battle. Each party of five had picked out a separate target from among the Troll’s leadership and were aiding their counterparts in fighting them. I had gotten first pick, so my team was aiding Bazzle.
Mary had opened things up with a Forgefire Strike spell which she had at Superior zero. Our limited knowledge of Trolls informed us that ongoing damage effects were most effective at reducing their regenerative abilities. Plus the feeling of metal being fused with your skin was incredibly excruciating, I knew that first hand.
After Mary’s initial strike I charged in with Holt to support Bazzle while Junior and Kip guarded Mary. As a tank it was my job to take the hits and hold the attention of the target so that my allies could freely strike them. A simple shield bash and mana infused taunting skill were enough to draw the ire of the Troll.
Now that we were close enough and I had my wits about me, I checked the tags of both my opponent and Bazzle.
Troll Brute (Superior) Level 45
Orc Expert (Superior) Level 45
Two monster races that were not in the Guild catalog from what I could remember. I’d have to check with Junior later since he knew better than me, but I was pretty sure these were both rare variants.
“Oi, Human Captain Kal! Keep Darm’s attention while I rev up my attack!” Bazzle shouted from behind me.
I didn’t respond as his direction was already unnecessary, it was my job to hold the damn things attention. At least I knew that this brute had a name as well. I used another taunt skill and charged forwards at the recovering Troll.
Darm had managed to recover enough to start swinging his spiked fists at me. I activated Fortify (Superior) along with Immovable (Legendary) causing the Troll’s mighty strikes to bounce off my shield as though his arms were made of rubber. This only made Darm angrier and caused him to redouble his efforts, raining down blows faster and faster.
As I was doing my best to hold fast against what felt like dozens of Primal Oaks falling on me, I could hear the sounds of a lute being played behind me. I could feel the mana gathering within Bazzle as he strummed each note. Bazzle then started doing something I didn’t expect, but should’ve. He started singing a poem.
“There once was a Troll named Darm.
He loved to bring others to harm.
But he got too big for his britches,
and sought other’s riches,
and that’s how he lost an arm!”
As Bazzle finished the last line of his song a massive wave of green and golden mana flowed outwards from him and Darm’s arm was suddenly severed from his body.
There was a single moment of stillness as everyone, Darm included, stared at the severed arm on the ground. This moment was broken when the arm started rapidly moving off towards Junior who had used his Greater Loot skill on it. Darm bellowed out a roar and started chasing after his own arm, which then led to myself and Bazzle chasing after him.
After that devastating blow we spent five minutes slowly killing Darm while Junior expertly kited him into attacking his own forces. Junior may not be the most combat inclined of us, but he made up for it with his wits and improvisation. Once Darm fell we were able to dismantle the rest of his forces, it went especially easily thanks to the rest of the raid parties killing all of Darm’s lieutenants.
With the Trolls dead and their forces routed the raid party gathered back up just in case things went badly with the Orcs we had helped. Fortunately Bazzle and the lieutenants who we helped were quick to order all the monsters not to attack us.
“Thanks for the assist Pink Skin! I’ll be sure to write a jaunty tune about your brave heroics.” Bazzle said with a toothy grin plastered on his face, something that would look menacing if not for his feathered cap and poofy white collar.
“Of course, I could hardly let a master of lyrical arts die off to some Troll.” I said good naturedly, earning several laughs from the Orcs and hobs around us.
“Well if you're that Troll averse perhaps you and your lot would like to meet up with our glorious leader? I’m sure the great Grobnozz would love to have a few pink skin mercenaries to help with the war effort.” Brazzle said, likely determining our real motivations behind helping him.
“Well, I would certainly be interested in some extra pay for slaughtering Trolls” I said, eliciting laughs from all of Brazzle’s forces this time.
“The day Grobnozz the Greedy pays out is the day Boz stops clubbing people”
“Or the day that Stabbins walks!”
“Or the day that Ogres fly!”
The array of green skinned humanoids continued to yell out different things for a few minutes while laughing until Bazzle eventually reigned them in.
“Alright, alright, we get it! Calm down already you lot, you're making me look bad!”
He returned his attention to me and I could almost see a glint of something in his eyes as he smiled at me.
“While it's true that our boss is quite frugal, he also had the largest stock of loot because of it. Besides it's not like he never pays out, he did gear up and train all of us after all. That kind of thing certainly wasn’t free.” He says both to myself and to his soldiers who become more subdued after that, nodding their heads in agreement.
“Why don’t you human’s accompany us back to our fortress? I’ll personally guarantee your safety and make sure you get a chance to talk with the boss” Bazzle says to me
I quickly turn to check the mood of the rest of the raid party and after registering their general consent I agree to Bazzle’s proposal. Looks like we’re going to be negotiating with Orcs today.