“Okay, we’ve got four minutes. Let’s talk strategy,” I said, turning to Jailen and Icalia. “Can you guys give me the rundown on your skills?”
Icalia nodded. “Would you like the spell descriptions, or a verbal rundown?”
“We’ve got time, send me over the descriptions.”
A new chat group populated labeled Mercenaries and began to flash, indicating there were unread messages. I mentally tapped the chat tab and read through their respective spells. Icalia’s spells appeared first.
Fire Wall
Cost: 5% Total mana points + 0.5% mana per second to maintain
Cooldown: None
Description: Create a waist-high wall of fire in a 4.7 (level / 10) meter line. Standing in the fire causes 23.5 (level / 2) damage per second.
Note: This is a mercenary-only spell.
Burning Coat
Cost: 15% Total mana points reserved
Cooldown: None (only usable on one target at a time)
Description: Coat the target in flaming armor for 94 (level * 2) seconds. Melee attacks against the target will return 50% of post-mitigation damage as fire damage.
Note: This is a mercenary-only spell.
Eye of the Fire Storm
Cost: 30% Total mana points
Cooldown: 300 seconds
Description: Create a super-heated fire storm centered around the caster for 4.7 (level / 10) seconds. Standing in the fire storm causes 94 (level * 2) damage per second. The fire storm moves to keep the caster in the center.
Note: This is a mercenary-only spell.
The possibilities were already forming in my mind as I read the spell descriptions. “Those are great,” I said to Icalia. I turned back to the chat to read Jailen’s spells. His spells were less exciting, but they complemented Icalia’s well.
Loam Defense
Cost: 15% Total mana points reserved
Cooldown: None
Description: Gaia herself will intercede against physical attacks. Plus 25% physical mitigation (multiplicative).
Note: This is a mercenary-only spell.
Quicksand
Cost: 15% Total mana points + 0.25% per second to maintain
Cooldown: None
Description: Gaia’s wrath has been incurred. Creates a pool of quicksand at the target location with a radius of 4.3 (level / 10) meters. All foot travel over the designated area is reduced to a maximum speed of 0.43 (level / 100) meters per second.
Note: This is a mercenary-only spell.
Gaia’s Strength
Cost: 30% Total mana points reserved
Cooldown: None
Description: Gaia herself stands with you. The earth will lend the target a portion of its strength so long as their feet touch her surface. Plus 15% strength to the target.
Note: This is a mercenary-only spell.
The synergy between [Quicksand] and [Fire Wall] had me giddy. I wasn’t exactly sure how slow 0.43 meters per second was, but I was pretty certain it was basically a walking pace. That, combined with the persistent damage from the fire would make one of the trenches a death trap. I did have a couple of clarifications I wanted to ask though.
“Cool, this is gonna be interesting. First question: does [Loam Defense] and [Burning Coat] stack?”
Jailen deferred to Icalia with a nod. “It does,” she replied. “However, you should keep in mind that the physical mitigation of [Loam Defense] will reduce the reflective damage of [Burning Coat].”
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Oh, shit. I hadn’t even thought about that. “Hmm, okay, so they’re not very synergistic,” I said. I was wracking my brain, trying to game theory the best distribution of the spells. “Okay, second question: can you cast [Eye of the Fire Storm] on me?”
Her lips tightened. “Unfortunately, no. I can only cast it on myself.”
“Damn!”
“It gets worse,” she added. “Not only can I not cast it on you or Jailen, but it will also do friendly fire damage to you both. That’s 50% of the spell’s normal damage.”
I nodded, looking off in the distance while I thought. “Okay, okay, that’s fine.” I turned back to them. “Last question: how do you two feel about player killing?”
They both shared a look. Jailen’s eyes went wide, but Icalia’s expression remained stoic. “We will do as you command,” she said after a moment. “But we would be remiss if we didn’t point out the potential consequences.”
I waved away her concern. “I think I already got a handle on that. Long as we don’t directly attack any players, we should be fine, right? But incidental friendly fire is fair game.”
Jailen looked between Icalia and me a few times, like a child waiting for the adults to speak. It was kind of endearing, in a silly way.
“Yes,” Icalia said, her brow furrowing. “Our AoE abilities will not flag us for PvP.” I noticed that she used the game terminology in a rare break of character, and the sudden shock on her face registered that she had too. She recovered quickly, coughing into her fist to cover the reaction. “Uh, that is, none of my spells will incur the wrath of Hope’s End, in so long as none of the Hope’s End soldiers are affected.”
“Perfect,” I said with a wide smile. I started explaining one of the set pieces I had in mind for later.
----------------------------------------
The sun was below the horizon now, the light spreading across the sky in a diffuse glow. The moon began to shift color, a red tinge slowly spreading across its surface.
I watched as the event timer ticked down:
5…
4…
3…
2…
1…
A voice projected over the battlefield, coming to us clearly despite the vast distance: “The beasts are loose. Man the defenses!” I realized it was the voice of General Aldara. It didn’t sound like he was screaming, but more like it was being broadcast into my ear.
The moon was blood red now, and it cast a scarlet tint over everything. It wasn’t true darkness, but more like a red, hazy twilight.
On the far edge of my vision, a small timer formed, counting down from two hours. Beneath it was a kill counter - currently at 0/1000.
I looked at Icalia and Jailen, and they were in their places in ready stances. Icalia stood at the entrance to the eastern trench, while Jailen was at the western trench. We had decided to have them each man a different trench to start, but we had plans to rotate one of them to support the other if needed.
I did a quick double check on my own preparations. My own inventory was sparse - only my stacks of potions and my spare weapons. I had realized that I could add my potions to a quick slot by mentally focusing on them in my inventory and had added the [Good Enough Health Potions] to that first quick slot. The mana potions were in the next slot, but I only had the one spell, so I didn’t anticipate using those.
I stood in the middle of the junction, scanning both trenches periodically. I really didn’t know what to expect, but after a few moments, I was starting to wonder where the mobs were. As I shifted side to side, a dull sound came to me over the trenches. It started soft, then quickly built to a crescendo - like a thunderstorm working its way across the land. Within moments, I could barely hear myself think.
“Holy shit!” I had to shout to even hear my own voice. Jailen’s eyes were wide, and he nodded in agreement. Icalia didn’t turn, her back straight, knees bent in a fighting stance.
The sound was physically jarring, and I felt the ground begin to subtly vibrate up my legs. I went over to the trench wall facing the direction the Horde was coming from. The wall was about 10 feet high, but I was able to dig my hands and feet into the densely-packed mud and climb up.
What I saw through the scarlet haze nearly made me lose my footing.
All the way to the edge of the forest, a dense wall of movement lit by the moon rushed towards us. The beasts were so tightly packed that I couldn’t pick out individual mobs with the poor lighting.
It was a tsunami of monsters, and it was poised to crash against us in seconds.
I jumped down from the trench, shaking my head in disbelief.
“I may have underestimated this event,” I shouted to Icalia.
“What?” she called back, turning her head slightly.
“I think I might have fucked myself,” I said softly. I moved to her shoulder to yell in her ear. “This is too much! We should retreat closer to camp!”
She shook her head. “Too late,” she shouted back, pointing down her trench.
Oh, shit! Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!
“Phase 1,” I called in her ear. I rushed back to Jailen. “Phase 1!” I held up my index finger to indicate the number one. He nodded, then started casting a spell.
I pulled my poleaxe, my grip slick on the wood. I was suddenly sweating like a stuck pig.
“Time to nut up or shut up.”