Before me, the mobs were scrambling up the ramp formed by their dead brothers and sisters. Without Icalia’s firewall to light this portion of the trench, the mobs were cast in deep shadow. The moon was full, the blood-red light shrouding everything in a sinister light. Despite the lighting, I could mark each and every one of the hyenas; as they approached, their forms were outlined in a subtle glow. Probably a quality-of-life enhancement so players didn’t complain about the day-night mechanics of the game.

I couldn’t complain, it made cutting them down child’s play.

After skewering dozens of the hyenas, the climb became so steep that they had trouble reaching me. A quick glance over my shoulder assured me that Icalia and Jailen were handling their side of things just fine. I took the quick respite to look at the quest timer.

Time remaining: 1 hour 42 minutes

Bonus Objective: 223/1000

I knew from talking to Icalia before the event started that the Horde’s attack was structured in waves. The waves would come for 20 minutes, then trickle to almost nothing for 10 minutes, giving the defenders a chance to regroup. Then another wave would begin again, starting the cycle all over.

I guess it was too much to ask the players to fight for 2 hours straight. And, I had to remind myself, they didn’t have the stats advantage I did. Many of them probably didn’t even have mercenaries - I imagined the cost was fairly prohibitive for a lot of players. I had noticed though that the hyenas weren’t dropping gold or loot. Hopefully, that meant the event reward would be something really good, or maybe the later waves of mobs had the good stuff.

Now that I had got my bearings, and felt confident against a pack of the hyenas, I was ready for phase 2 of my plan. Icalia and Jailen were casually wanding anything that made it close through the firewall-quicksand combo, but that was very few of the hyena mobs. So, I didn’t feel like I was distracting them when I sent them a quick message.

Ray: You guys ready for phase 2?

I saw them give each other a look, but it was brief. Icalia was the one to reply.

Icalia: We are ready.

Ray: We move in 2 minutes

Icalia: Acknowledged

From my vantage point, I could see most of the surrounding trenches, but there was an unnatural fog spreading across the defenses that seemed to move with me. Like a fog-of-war, I guessed. But of the trenches I could see, we were the only one with a visible pile of dead mobs. Most likely, Git and the rest of the players that had resolved to follow me had been bogged down by mobs before they could track us down. That was just fine.

We were coming to them.

The two minutes ticked down, and the hyenas coming from the east were down to a trickle. On my side of things, the wave of mobs stopped abruptly, the last few charging me valiantly before I cut them down. The sounds that had been reminiscent of charging cavalry had died down completely. All I heard now was the whooshing from Icalia’s firewall, and the occasional crackle of embers popping from the dead and burning corpses.

I beckoned for Icalia and Jailen to follow, and they let their spells drop, running towards me. I skipped across the head-high pile of hyena bodies, over to the ground above the trenches. It would be so much faster to just run along the top where we would have a vantage into all the trenches below us.

But there was a problem with that.

As soon as my foot hit the churned ground, a notification popped into my vision.

You have been hobbled (location based)!

Movement hampered.

Movement speed -25%.

You have been terrified (location based)!

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Damage dealt reduced by 75%.

Damage received increased by 75%.

You have been infected by the Scarlet Moon (location based)!

-50 Health Points/sec while under the Scarlet Moon.

Find cover!

But worst of all was the feeling of foreboding that weighed on me - a pressure in the back of my head like the regard of something ancient and evil. I knew it wasn’t real - just a series of physical sensations to fabricate an oppressiveness - but damn if it didn’t work!

That would be a nasty surprise for anyone that wasn’t aware of the debuffs. Thankfully, Icalia had informed me of them earlier when I had suggested using the upper level to travel. But I hadn’t had the opportunity to probe for any other unlisted mechanics.

I immediately jumped back to the corpse pile and all my debuffs cleared. Icalia and Jailen had scrambled up the bodies and were now standing at my side.

“Are there other hidden mechanics?” I asked quickly. They said nothing, but from their silence, I understood that there was. “Crap. Okay, that’s fine. Tell me this: are there any issues with phase 2 as we discussed it?”

Jailen looked at Icalia, deferring. She pursed her lips, then gave a short shake of her head in the negative.

“Okay, then. Plan stays the same. We’ll just have to move fast.” I leapt down into the trench, past the pile of hyenas. “Let’s go!” I shouted up at them.

They both followed.

----------------------------------------

We wasted five precious minutes running through the trench system. Every couple hundred yards or so, I’d climbed the top of the trench wall to survey the area. The debuffs always hit me as soon as I set foot on the upper level, but cleared just as quick when I jumped back down.

All in all, it wasn’t that bad.

I stopped after another hundred meters and climbed to the upper level like I had a handful of times already. I guessed we were maybe only five hundred yards from our original defensive position but had run at least two kilometers via trench.

From the top level, I scanned in a circle. The fog and dim lighting made it difficult to see far, but sound seemed to travel much further. I didn’t see anything and was about to jump back down, when I heard the sounds of laughter. I immediately bent down into a crouch, marking the direction on my minimap.

There was two minutes until the next wave hit.

I leapt down, holding my finger to my lips as the two mercenaries gave me questioning looks. I indicated the direction and beckoned for them to follow.

We started at a run but slowed as the sounds of voices came to us. I heard three, possibly four, distinct voices. When I thought we were right on them, I stopped at a turn and peeked my head around the corner.

There were hundreds of the hyena mobs forming an artificial barricade across the trench, and I couldn’t see over the pile.

I leaned back, looking at Icalia and Jailen.

“Four of them, I think,” I said. They both looked very uncomfortable. Jailen was shifting his weight foot to foot, and Icalia had a scrunched-up face, her lips clenched tight.

There was 40 seconds until the next wave.

“What? What is it?” I asked, looking between the two of them.

Icalia’s expression remained sour, but Jailen stopped fidgeting. “Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked after a moment.

I looked at him wide-eyed. “You saw how they treated me, right? Git touched my boob and no one protested.” I shook my head. “Not only did no one protest - they formed a mob and came after me! Why the fuck wouldn’t I want to do this?” The heat was rising to my face, even more pronounced after the exertion of our run here. Whose side was he on? I thought angrily.

“I’m not saying it was right,” Jailen added quickly. “But-” he looked away, suddenly uncomfortable again. “You were a damsel actor. Aren’t you, like…used to that?”

I stared at him wide eyed, my mouth hanging open. The anger began to harden inside of me, and Jailen immediately recoiled, aware that he had not only broken character, but said something that had really pissed me off.

But before I could scream at him and blow our cover, Icalia reached over and literally decked him in the face. He flew onto his butt, more from the shock than anything. His pain reducers would have made that hit feel like a light caress, and neither of the elementalists were designed for melee damage, but a punch was a punch.

He lay in the mud, staring up at Icalia with equal measures shock and embarrassment.

Just as he was about to say something, the event timer ticked to 1 hour 30 minutes.

All around us, the corpses of the hyenas sank into the mud, dissipating within moments. This was a mechanism they had been able to inform me about. And it made sense - the trenches would be choked with mobs before the hour was done otherwise.

Icalia was standing over the man, her eyes wild, her chest heaving. Her face was a mask of fury as she said through clenched teeth, “We will talk about this later.”

My own anger had flowed away - I understood what he was getting at, even if I didn’t agree with the sentiment. It shouldn’t be accepted fact that damsels were there to be groped and harassed - and yet, it was.

I cleared my head with a shake. “Come on,” I said, holding out a hand to help him up. He looked at it hesitantly for a moment, then reached out and took it. “Will you two help me?” I asked softly. “Not because you have to, or because you want a good review. Will you help me-” I pointed in the direction of the other players. “-because those assholes deserve it?

They both nodded, and I could see determination in their faces.

“Then Operation Firebomb is a go!”