We rode north hard as night descended. The goblin scouts guarding the northern road let us pass without incident. We slowed enough to talk once we were a few miles away.
“I think we need to go back,” Slade announced.
“What?” I said. “Are you insane?”
“No, really,” Slade said. “We were supposed to defeat the goblin king.”
“Slade, that wasn’t the king. That was just a scouting party. It was way more than we could handle. There’s no way we can fight through multiple groups like that and then hope to defeat the king. We need to call this a failed quest.” I said.
“Agreed,” Max said.
“I want to go back,” chimed Emma.
Slade stopped and turned his horse, blocking the path. “That’s two to two. Sounds like we need a coin toss.”
“No,” I said. “We can’t do this. We’ll be killed.”
“I’ll make the toss,” Max said.
“Max?” I yelled. “What the hell? Do you want to get us killed?”
“No,” Max said while blinking to open his inventory. “But we already decided that split votes went to the coin.”
I watched in horror as a coin appeared in his hand. We couldn’t go back it would be suicide.
The coin bounced along Max’s fingers as he asked, “Who’s calling it?”
Slade barked, “That’s me. Go!”
Max flicked the coin up in the air, “Call!”
“Heads!” Slade yelled.
The coin spun and fell right into Max’s hand. He then slapped it against his arm and lifted his hand away. There were two crossed spears, and I exhaled loudly.
“Tails,” Max called out.
Slade looked crestfallen, while Emma looked furious. Neither said anything, Slade turned his horse, and we started north again.
Chimes went off and we were each bathed in a glowing spotlight.
Party Gained: Experience
Achievement: Level 4
Too tired to care, we silently traveled in the dark for a few hours, following the road carefully.
I watched the sky until my eyes drooped heavily, and I nearly fell from the horse. “Guys, we should stop and grab some sleep.”
“Agreed!” Max said.
“You don’t always have to agree with her,” Slade said.
“I need sleep, too,” Emma said.
“Fine,” Slade gave in. He slowed to a stop, hopped off his mount, grabbed Emma by the waist, and lifted her off.
Dismounting, I looked around. I could see a surprising number of details in the dark. My night vision was far better than I ever remember it being before.
We’d made it back into the grasslands. Small animal tracks were scattered across the plains. Other than that, the landscape was flat and uninteresting, with occasional thickets of trees. In the distance, I could see several fires that seemed to be dying down.
“Campfires pretty far away; I think they’re far,” I told the others.
“We should probably have someone keep watch. Maybe rotate every couple of hours.” Max offered.
“I’ll go first,” Slade said.
“Fine with me,” I yawned. I needed sleep desperately.
I grabbed my blanket from the saddle bag and rolled it out a few yards from the road. Laying down, I could see that Slade was trying to see the distant campfires with little success. I faded into a blissful sleep.
A horse whiny woke me up. Actually, a lot of horse noises woke me up. I sat up and saw dozens of horses and riders milling about, moving around the dark where we’d set up camp. I scrambled to my feet and looked around frantically.
A brutish man in filthy armor gave a gap-toothed smile. He tipped his helmeted head in my direction, “Milady.”
I couldn’t help but think he looked much like the raiders we’d fought just a few days ago. Looking around, the more I saw, the more I was convinced we’d been overwhelmed by brigands, but they weren’t attacking us.
“What’s going on?” Max asked, struggling to crawl out from under his blanket.
“We’s got a warband forming,” The bandit said. “Don’t know that either you two lot will be any help, but Slade the Slayer said you’re coming along anyway.”
“Slade?” I called out.
“That’s right,” the raider replied, “He put together this little party.”
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I marched through the horses and bandits to the road. Slade was on his horse talking to several other very bandity looking humans who were also mounted.
“Slade,” I said, approaching him, “What's going on?”
“Ah, Victoria! She’s a deadeye with a bow,” he told the others. Then to me, “We’re going back to retake the fort.”
I stammered a moment then explained, “But we voted to abandon this quest and return to town.”
“Yeah,” Slade said, “That was before Emma decided to go back on her own.”
“She what?” I asked in disbelief. “She wouldn’t.”
“Could and did.” He said,
“Where’d all these… riders come from?” Max asked, interrupting the hot, burning words I was dying to unleash on Slade.
“Oh yeah. I was wondering for a while who would have campfires out here. So, I went and looked. When I told them about our quest, they agreed to help.”
“But we’re not doing that quest anymore,” I told Slade.
“Well, we have to go back. Emma.” Slade said.
“You lost Emma?” Max asked.
“I didn’t lose her. She made up her mind to return to the fort.” Slade explained.
“Was that before or after you went to talk to these bandits?” I said.
“Does it matter now?” Slade asked. “What really matters is that Emma needs us. Needs us to rescue her.”
“I’ll get my gear together,” Max said, going back for his blanket.
“Wait, we voted on this. We should be going back to town.”
“Emma needs us,” Max said. “I’m with Slade on this.”
“Two to one. We’re going back.” Slade said.
It's not like I would have abandoned Emma, but I was miffed. We’d voted on this, and now we were going back and forth without direction. If we kept acting like this, we’d never finish the game and return home.
I grabbed my blanket and tossed it in the inventory. As I got back in the saddle, the eastern sky began to light up. Dawn was near, and it would be full daylight when we returned to the fort.
Slade whistled, and the dismounted riders clambered up on their horses. Waving his battleaxe overhead, Slade pointed to the south, and the assembled mass moved out. I counted twenty-four raiders. Most were level 2, but there were a fair number of 3’s and at least two 4’s. We now had the numbers to challenge the goblins at the fort.
I had to wonder, though, was that fair? We’d given our word that we were riding off and leaving the glitch to them. Riding back would certainly be breaking that promise. If Emma had indeed returned to the keep, she’d already broken it. I rode in silence, not exactly happy Slade had allied us with raiders.
Slade seemed in his element. He rode at the front of the column, talking loudly, telling the raiders of his exploits on the field of football combat. He embellished a little, skipping the details of it being a sport and making each game sound like a different battle in a long campaign to win the King’s State Championship Trophy. The raiders seemed to eat it up. I didn’t quite understand how Slade, Slade the Stupor, King Slade the Moron, had charmed this lot. I decided he may very well have talents that were not immediately discernable.
Max rode up next to me, “Hey! Can you guide me a bit? I’m going to level up.”
I took his reins, and he slipped into the menu system. He spent almost an hour before bopping out with a smile and saying, “We get to choose additional classes next level.”
“Oh?” I said, “And that excites you?”
“Yeah. You can continue on your current path. For you, Hunter. For me, Rogue. You’ll become even better at it and get skills suited to remaining pure to your original class. Or, you can select another class and start learning a whole new set of skills.”
“What do you know? An MMO.” I said. “Although, if we’re headed into a fight, I should probably level up as well.”
Max took my reins, and I blinked myself into the menus.
Victoria – Level 4 Hunter
Monster Knowledge +1
Nature Stealth +1
Archery +1
Skills: Hunter’s Mark
Fighting Style: Archery
Boon: World Knowledge
Choose next skill:
Nature Step
Improve Skill
Crippling Shot
At one time, Nature Step sounded amazing. Now, though, knowing it was limited to only wildness made it less attractive. Improve Skill sounded good, but I wondered if I was focusing too much on combat. Then again, avoiding death was my ultimate goal.
Crippling Shot sounded intriguing, so I read the info on it. Any Crippling arrow shot that hit its target would hobble the victim, making it difficult for them to move. That would have been hugely helpful when the goblin leader rushed me on the rocks earlier. It would also be helpful if we needed to prevent enemies from fleeing.
I wasn’t getting a lot of options for non-combat skills. I wondered if any of the classes that Max mentioned were more geared for less hostile environments. Baker or Accountant was sounding pretty good right now. Crippling Shot it was.
Exiting the menu, Max remarked, “That was quick.”
“Yeah, well, I only had three skill choices.”
“Did you see how they evolved over time? Or consider skills with good synergies?” Max asked.
When I said nothing he continued explaining, forgetting I played MMOs and knew all this. “Skills that work better together in unison than alone. For example, you already have one, Stealth and Sneak Attack. Sneak Attack only works if you stealth and does a lot more damage. It’s a pretty basic synergy.”
“I didn’t know we could see the skills available in the future.”
“Victoria, you have to read the manual. I’ve already plotted out my progression path to level 20,” Max said.
The next couple of hours were uneventful. Just a lot of people riding horses to the edge of the world.
As we approached the foothills, I rode forward up the Slade. He was still entertaining and didn’t seem to mind me getting ahead of the group.
Scanning the road, I spotted our earlier tracks heading south, then later north as we fled. On top of those was a new set, Emma heading back alone. I hoped we weren’t too late.
The road started switching as we rode up into the foothills. After another hour of riding I started spotting goblin tracks. They were erratic, going in all directions, sometimes crossing the road, sometimes following it, but in general, just going in all the directions.
Then I spotted the first cube. I was about to call out, certain it was Emma’s, then I spotted another. And another. Emma was level 3, or 4 if she leveled up as well. I supposed there was a chance she could have taken out a few goblins, but honestly, I didn’t know what sorts of combat spells healers had.
Riding off the path, I opened each cube, finding little but spears and jerky. It was garbage loot, goblin loot. After opening eight of them I was starting to wonder what the hell had happened. It simply wasn’t possible that Emma had killed all these goblins. We still had another half mile or so to the fort.
Returning to our warparty I found Max was now riding alongside Slade.
“Did any of those belong to Emma?” Max asked.
“Nope,” I said. “Goblins all the way down.”
“Emma’s pretty tough,” Slade said. “I’ll bet she kicked ass all the way back.”
“Um, no,” I said. “She’s a healer. A support position.”
“Don’t discount her. She’s stronger than you think.” Slade said. He almost sounded respectful. I absolutely had to make sure they didn’t get together. The breakup drama would be out of this world.
As we approached the fort there were even more cubes. I continued opening them, worried I’d find Emma’s clothes in one of them. Twenty-two cubes later and I was still waiting. With each one opened, my curiosity grew stronger. Had Emma somehow formed her own band of raiders to go back?
The gates to the fort were blasted away. Pieces clung to the giant hinges, but most of the gates were missing, leaving scorched marks on the nearby logs making up the palisade.
Slade and Max drew their weapons from inventory. This was a cue for all the raiders to do the same. As we marched to the fort, a lone figure wandered out to the gap where the gates had once been.
Emma smiled and waved us in.