The party got moving just after dawn and headed back down the main artery of Highway Nine that led out of town. Joe momentarily pondered raiding the drug store but then realized that it would not furnish anything that the System couldn’t take care of better. That made him think of other things that were no longer necessary now that people would eventually heal from most wounds and diseases. Medics and healers would be relegated to being part of an adventuring group or maybe the rare occasion that an accident happened where bleeding or poison could possibly kill someone, but hospitals and doctors would be mostly unnecessary.
Joe did make one stop before leaving town. He broke into a local liquor store and pulled out a few bottles of high-end scotch. He passed a bottle to Rory who promptly opened it up and took a huge swallow. Joe’s eyebrows shot up as Rory downed half the bottle in one go. Rory wiped his mouth and gave Joe a satisfied look. “A wee bit on the weak side, but tasty. Remind me to getcha a bottle of Boom Boom.”
“Ach, nae you don’t Ror. I’ll nae have you putting Joe in a coma with your nasty concoction.” Iona admonished. The two argued back and forth about the merits or lack thereof of Rory’s alcoholic creation. Joe and Kier both smiled as they listened to the mostly friendly sibling banter.
Not long after leaving the town proper, the road became edged by the redwood forest and the occasional house or building. The terrain also changed slightly with a much sharper rise to their right and a drop off towards the river to their left. Joe saw several abandoned cars that had obviously crashed as their occupants had been pulled away to join the tutorial. Here it felt more as if the road was an interloper through the forest, but it still felt familiar as a road that Joe had traveled many times in his life.
Bixby had ranged out several dozens of feet along the curvy road, being sure to remain in sight. Joe was in the lead of the rest of the party with Iona and Kier walking along the road abreast of one another and Rory bringing up the rear. It had been discussed that they should not present an easy target as a group in case of an attack and so they were all about ten to twenty feet away from each other. They were still talking amongst themselves when Bixby gave out a sharp yelp as an arrow sprang from his flank.
Iona yelled out, “Archer!” and swung her shield towards the hillside to their right.
Joe blinked twice as he met Bixby halfway, he cast his Mantle spell and placed his back to the hill as he tried to shield Bixby from any follow up attack. He removed the arrow and poured water from his flask over Bixby’s wound as the dwarves caught up. Iona placed herself between the forest and Joe and Bixby, while Kier came alongside Bixby and cast a healing spell.
Rory picked up the discarded arrow, sniffed it and swore. “Gnolls!” He spat and snapped the arrow in two while scanning the forest.
Another arrow streaked out of the trees and bounced off of Rory’s helmet with a brief golden streak of light. Iona glanced back to see that Bixby was back on his feet and growling. She swung her gaze back to the trees and let out a challenge in Dwarvish that Joe found far louder than he thought a yell should be as she clashed her ice-bladed axe against her shield.
In moments, several figures came charging out of the woods, practically flying down the hillside towards the group. Joe could see that these people were human sized, wearing armor and brandishing weapons of various kinds. Their armor was mostly leather with a variety of swords and axes. As they got closer, he could see that their heads looked vaguely like hyenas. He took a chance and Inspected one.
Gnoll Bloodhunter (20)
HP: 650
Status: Taunted
The gnolls coming down the hillside were fixated on Iona and yelling and yipping like wild beasts. Rory and Kier had already turned to face them, when two larger groups appeared on either side of the roadway. Kier quickly took control, “Iona, you take the right! Joe! Can you and Bixby take the left?”
Joe counted maybe fifteen gnolls charging up the road and looked to Bixby. Bixby snorted and took off at a run towards the oncoming horde. Joe called over his shoulder, “Yeah, we got this!”
Kier yelled something else, but Joe could not hear it over the cacophony of yells and howls of the hyena men. Joe watched as Bixby leapt directly at the lead gnoll only to vanish at the last second to reappear behind their lines and begin savaging their ranks with hit and run tactics. Joe recast his Mantle spell and Haste while pulling his swords. He ran at the first several gnolls and as they prepared to receive his charge, he blinked ten feet to their left and slammed his swords into a surprised gnoll. He pivoted on his feet, tearing his left-hand sword free of his opponent in time to block an incoming strike from a spear. Gripping tightly to his right-hand sword, he used his inhuman strength to swing the gnoll who was stuck to the sword, into two others, knocking all three off their feet and effectively entangling them.
He let go of his right-hand sword and let it fall with his opponent and blinked to the other side of the road where Bixby had initially attacked. Several gnolls there were bleeding from multiple bites and slashes. In his Hasted state, it felt like the monsters were moving through molasses. He spun and punched one across its snout, caving in its face and knocking it backwards almost fifteen feet. A huge axe came slamming down towards him which he blocked with his remaining sword, stopping the attack cold and sending a shockwave through his opponent’s weapon. He recalled his second sword to hand and plunged it into the gnoll’s throat. He felt something impact his back and spun to see a gnoll that had tried to stab him in the back with a short sword, but the blade could not penetrate his mantle or his armor. He kicked the gnoll in the chest and felt ribs break as the creature plowed into several others, knocking them all back. Bixby appeared next to the one he had kicked and efficiently ripped its throat out then began tearing into the others that were struggling to stand back up.
It had only been a handful of seconds since Joe started fighting but already half the gnolls were dead and the others were disoriented by their opponents constantly blinking around the fight. Joe kept the pressure up as he watched a larger gnoll with a staff begin chanting, “Oh, no you don’t!” He yelled and launched himself at the gnoll. Joe practically flew through the air and his knee impacted the gnolls’ chest. This time, Joe followed the spellcaster as it skidded across the road to crash into the side of a car. In the rush of battle, Joe grabbed the sedan and lifted it like it was a toy and dropped it onto the gnoll. The familiar tingle in the back of his mind told him it was dead and no longer a threat. Holy crap! I just picked up a car! He turned to face the rest. Bixby had obviously cast Haste on himself as he was moving at blinding speed through the remaining warriors. Joe took a second to check on his friends only to see that Iona had ended up facing a much larger group and was surrounded. Her health bar in his vision was down by about ten percent. Rory was still facing the ones that had come down the mountainside and he was surrounded by a red mist, cursing, and swinging his hammer. Several gnolls were down, but Joe could see that the mad dwarf had also taken some hits. His Health bar showed he’d taken almost twenty percent of his Health. Kier was facing his own group of gnolls, but they were wary of the lightning arcing from his mace as he tried to give Iona some back up.
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“Bixby, the rest are yours!” Joe yelled and he rushed down the road. As he passed Rory, he cast Web at the few gnolls standing back in the trees and firing arrows, temporarily taking them out of the fight as they were engulfed in a huge sticky mass of spider webbing. He then Blinked behind the crush of gnolls facing Iona. He grabbed the first one he could reach and stabbed a sword into the back of its head while a back hand with his other sword decapitated another.
The gnolls suddenly realized that they had an enemy at their back and were forced to split their forces. Joe’s distraction was a boon to Iona who switched from defense to offense and began to swing her axe to devastating effect. Several gnolls were covered in ice and frozen in place and Joe noticed a few times that her axe glowed with a soft golden light. Whenever that light appeared, her next strike tore through her opponent like it was made of tissue paper.
Joe had just killed another two gnolls when he heard Kier yell, “Iona, Joe! Get back!”
Joe looked over at Kier who at that moment had no living enemies near him and he began chanting. As he chanted, his mace began to glow with a bright silvery light. Joe could feel an enormous buildup of Mana coming from Kier. Not wanting to be on the receiving end of whatever Kier was about to do, Joe blinked twice to move back closer to Rory who, by that time was stomping on the head of a gnoll and cursing its family lineage.
Iona had disengaged and the gnolls were closing ranks when the sky cracked open above them, and a lightning bolt sundered the air. It struck the group of gnolls and blasted them in all directions leaving a crater in its wake. Bleed over from the bolt lanced to Iona and electricity arced over her armored form. Bodies and parts of bodies rained down around Joe and his party as he watched Kier drop to one knee breathing heavy. Joe darted over to Iona to check on her only to watch as she shook herself as if coming out of a cold shower.
“I’m nae hurt. Much.” She answered his unspoken question. She stalked past him over to Kier.
As Iona helped Kier to his feet, Joe noticed a circle of fallen beast men where she had stood her ground. Her tactic was the polar opposite of Joes. Where he used hit-and-run blitz attacks, she just stood her ground and trusted in her armor to keep her safe. Anything that entered the range of Winter’s Bite had simply died.
Joe scanned around to find that Bixby and Rory were dealing with the final few gnolls. There were bodies scattered everywhere and the forest and road were soaked with blood. Joe watched as Rory took one of the gnoll spears and dispatched the webbed ones. Soon the forest grew quiet except for the heavy breathing of Joe and his party. Rory came trotting up to the group alongside Bixby. Both were covered in blood. Rory was looking over his hammer and complaining about getting nasty gnoll blood all over it.
Joe went over and asked, “Are you hurt?”
Rory answered, “Nae nothing that…” his voice trailed off as he realized that Joe was talking to Bixby. He snorted and muttered, “How’re you doing Rory? Hope you’re nae injured, Rory.”
Joe, knelt and checked Bixby for injuries and glanced at Rory, “I figured you were fine, since you’re still bitching. I’ll know you’re really hurt when I don’t hear anything out of that cesspool you call a mouth.”
That got a guffaw from Kier and a chuckle from Iona, “The lad’s gotcha there Ror.” Kier said. C’mon over and I’ll getcha healed.”
Rory looked like he was about to argue when he shrugged his shoulders, smiled at Joe and said, “Fair enough.”
Joe shook his head as he stood up, “Why didn’t you open with that monster lightning bolt?” he asked Kier.
Kier looked over at Joe as he laid a hand on Rory, “Cause it takes Mana and Stamina and whacks the bollocks out of me. Tis called Smite and it was me level thirty spell choice. That was me second time using it. Don’t want to shoot me load right off the cart if I can avoid it.”
Rory snickered, “Aye, tis the complaint of every lass he’s been with.” Iona gave Rory a dirty look and Kier chuckled.
Joe gave him an impressed look, “I hope I can get some heavy-duty spells like that when I finally get a class.”
Iona, hiding a grin at Rory and satisfied that her brothers were fine began looting the bodies and Joe saw several notifications pop up which he ignored for the moment. As she looted, she spoke, “It’ll all depend on your class and what it allows.”
“How do you mean?”
Kier continued, “Each class has a list of spells you can access as you gain in levels. Every five levels, you get a new spell to choose from the list. As a War Cleric class, I’ve access to healing and divinity-based spells. Or take Rory, as a Battlerager his spell list is more about rampaging and smashing shite.”
“And I’ve got a specialty class called Bulwark of the Axe. I get shield and axe-based spells to help me better stand me ground.”
“Huh.” Joe continued looting and then commented, “So, I get Iona’s class protects her from damage and Kier can heal, but Rory seems to take a lot of damage from a fight. Isn’t that dangerous?”
Rory laughed out loud, “Har! You’re a hoot longlegs! I can take more damage than both of them combined. I’ve got abilities what let me ignore some damage and pain, but me class is all about getting hit. The more damage I take, the more I can rage. The more I rage, the more damage I can dish out.” He examined a broken spear then tossed it aside, “And besides, I’ve got Kier to patch me up after.”
Kier raised an eyebrow at Rory, “Now, you can also read spell books like ye’ve done or you can buy spells from the Shoppe. Only, Shoppe spells cost a ridiculous amount of gold and you can only learn spells from spell books if the spell’s in your class list.”
“But I have a bunch of spells that don’t really relate to each other. And I don’t have a class, so how can I be learning the spells?”
“I’m thinking that since you’ve got nae class, that maybe your nae bound by that restriction. That’s just a guess though.”
That gave Joe a lot to think about as the group finished looting the bodies. With Joe in the party, the dwarves were delighted to see that the gold dropped by the gnolls was higher than it normally should be for enemies at their level. Joe came away with fourteen hundred gold and a handful of mediocre weapons and armor.
Rory whistled, “That’s pure dead brilliant! These boggin’ cludgie lickers gave me fourteen hundred gold! And they was practically mad with experience!”
Kier narrowed his eyes as he looked at Joe. “Methinks there’s a wee bit of play happening with Joe.”
Smiling, Rory walked over and clapped Joe on the back, “Well, tis a bonnie thing to have Joe in the Party, aye what?” He turned and tossed Bixby a piece of jerky, “And Bixby too of course.” Bixby snatched the snack out of the air as Rory chewed on his own piece.
Kier looked around the area and said, “Well, time to get a move on. This much blood’s bound to bring some beasties.”
Everyone was splashed with blood although Kier seemed the least covered, so as they walked, Joe had everyone take turns wearing his cloak to clean them off. Although it was a laughable sight as it trailed behind each dwarf. Lastly, Joe himself wore the cloak with Bixby walking by his side, covered as well for the time it took to clean them both.
Rory gave Joe a side eye, “You’re full of surprises are you not? What else do you have tuckered away in your inventory?”
Joe gave Rory a sly smile, “Wouldn’t you like to know?”